Assimilation
by justsmileandwaveboys
Summary: Starting off right after the Ashes scene in IW, the story follows the Avengers as they come to terms with the situation and deal with the aftermath. Will the Avengers team up and let go of their differences? Will the remainder of Asgard find its way back to Thor? And what has Loki gotten himself into now? It is never too late to fix canon. There you go, I fixed it! *Pro-Loki*
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N - I started writing this quite some time ago and recently talked myself into actually posting it. This was originally meant to collect dust in a folder on my laptop. I hope this is half as good as I imagine it to be.**

 **Lemme know how it is and if there is something that you would like to see here.**

 **Also, I'm currently a huge, huge Loki fan so this is more or less inclined towards Loki, but that does not mean that the others are pushed away. I hope not. Lemme know if that happens too.**

 **Disclaimer - All characters belongs to Marvel. I only own my wayward imagination.)**

 ** _CHAPTER 1_**

 _Moments after the snap  
Location: Unknown_

He was floating. He was sure of that. But where? Where was he? What was he doing there? Why could he not feel or see anything? What had happened to him? And the most important question: Who was he?

Unfortunately, he had absolutely no answer to any of the questions that flitted through his mind. He had no recollection of anything and all he knew was the darkness that surrounded him, enveloping him like a mother cradles a child. But he was torn, unable to absorb the comfort given to him. He needed to know. He needed to know who he was, where he was, how he got there and what in the name of Helheim happened to him?

Helheim? What was that? Why did he know and fear that word? Why could he not remember anything?

 ** _"See you in Hel, monster!"_**

What? He thought to himself – as much as he could in his current state, which wasn't much. A brief sort-of-memory came to him. A memory of a truly horrible looking being with curved horns casing his dark face. Algrim. That was the name of the monster, but before he could remember anything else, the memory had disappeared as if it never was there.

He tried. He really did. But there was no getting back the memory that he had seen and yet he did not give up. He may not know anything about himself, but he knew that he would not and could not give up. No matter what. And so he latched on to the two things he did remember – Helheim and Algrim. Now only if they were a bit more helpful in telling him more about himself.

 ** _"Frigga is the only reason you are still alive and you will never see her again. You will spend the rest of your days in the dungeon."_**

He almost leapt with joy as another broken memory revealed itself. Well, he would have leapt had he had a physical form. He was so sure that he didn't have one now.

Now, what was the memory about? Frigga? Who was that? Certainly someone beloved to him if it was considered a punishment to keep him from seeing her ever again. And what was that about dungeons? Was he in those dungeons now? But would the dungeons not be more… well… dungeon-y? Like a prison made out of glass and metal. But how did he know that? And why did he know that?

And who was Frigga? Why did it feel it to be so important to know and remember her? Frigga…Frigga…Frig – mother! Frigga was his mother. He remembered now. But why was he being kept from her? Why would anyone do that to someone? To keep them away from their own mother?

He was desperate to know her, to remember her. What did she look like? Where was she? Was she worried about him? Then it came to him – a picture of a beautiful, fierce woman with curly brown hair and a loving smile. Oh, she was beautiful and somehow seeing her face moved him to tears. Why was he sad to see her?

But before he could find an answer to that disturbing question, another memory, other words came to him.

 ** _"Remember this place. Home."_**

And he remembered an old man with an eye patch and flowing white hair. Old and wise – the man oozed these two feelings. But there was something else, something that felt oddly comforting to him, something almost similar to how the woman, Frigga had felt to him. Based on just that feeling, he deduced that this old man was his father as Frigga was his mother. He had to be. He certainly looked and felt the part.

 ** _"I assure you, brother, the sun will shine on us again!"_**

Brother? He had a brother. Where was this brother of his? Was he worried about him? What did he look like? And why could he not remember anything about his brother?

He was getting frustrated, not knowing where he was, whether he was even alive or not. It was all very infuriating and while he was grateful for the tiny pieces of memories and spoken words, was it really too much to ask for returning his complete memory?

 ** _"You will... never be... a god!"_**

He would have gasped and flinched if he had been physically capable of such deeds, but alas he was not and had to watch in paralyzing fear as a humongous purple face came to mind. The being was huge, menacing and his eyes devoid of any mercy. The Mad Titan, he was called. And on his hand was a golden gauntlet with some sort of gems adorning it. Something told him that those gems were not to be messed around with.

He was trying to think about why he was so familiar with the gems but he was starting to panic and he realized that it wasn't him – the floating him, but the-him standing in front of the purple face who was panicking. He was in an emotional turmoil, panic and fear clutching his heart in a tight grip and yet in between all of that he felt peaceful. He knew, oh, he knew what was coming but he was finally peaceful, finally able to let go of the horrible life that he had led in the past few years.

And then came the guilt and it crashed into him like a rampaging Fenrir mixed in with Hulk. He had no business feeling peaceful when not a little distance away he could hear his brother's strangled and helpless cries. He wanted to run to his brother but had a feeling that his death might be the only way his brother could escape and so he picked up his nonexistent courage and faced the Mad Titan for one last time. For his brother.

He would have closed his eyes at what came next but he wasn't even sure if his eyes (did he still have them?) were open in the first place. He saw as a huge fist came forwards and the titan lifted him by neck with ease, like he weighed absolutely nothing and he probably didn't for the monster. Somewhere towards his left, the strangled cries turned into shouts of horror and then pleading and he uttered his final words as all life was squeezed out of him and he was probably thrown somewhere to the side. A 'nobody' in the grand scheme of things.

 ** _"We were raised together. We played together, we fought together. Do you remember none of that?"_**

The once cherished memories were now an assault on his conscience. He desperately wished for them to stop. He didn't want to know anymore. He was willing to accept the unknown darkness around him – anything to take away the emotional pain. But that voice. That voice belonged to this brother of his and after a few moments of struggle, he accepted the memory. And then he wished he hadn't. The pain and anguish on his brother's face was too much for him to bear but he continued to hold on to the image of a red caped, bearded man with long golden hair, standing on what he figured was a mountain.

He didn't know why his brother was so upset with him but the other man's words brought back some age old memories. Memories of two young boys playing side by side and chasing each other around an enormous room. The next memory was of the same two boys but a bit older, hiding in an alcove and trying to hold in their laughter as they waited for someone to pass the corridor they were in. Another one, of the brothers with some other children, training with each other and showing off their talents to their parents who were watching them.

And now the memories passed at rapid speed – too rapid even for him to catch on to except for a few broken images. An image of the mother scolding the brothers as their friends tried to escape unnoticed – now the brothers were older and definitely planning something as they stood and whispered in a dark corner – another memory of the older one protecting the younger one from some kind of physical threat by acting as a physical barrier between the two – another one of him showing his brother some magic trick and making him laugh out loud – and the images continued in such fashion till he started to realize that something had gone wrong because now the brothers fought, but not side by side, but against one another on top of a rainbow bridge and then again on top of some weirdly shaped building. As the memories showed more of the giant chasm between the brothers, he felt an ache build inside him, eating him from the inside. He wanted it to stop, wanted to shout and scream and beg for this torment to stop. But he had no voice. He was no one – nothing.

He continued to watch helplessly as he was thrown into the dungeons for some sort of betrayal, then the terrible news of his sweet mother's death, then usurping his father and the look of utter betrayal and hatred on his brother's face at their father's death which was most definitely his fault. Then came the tyrant and mentally unstable sister, massacring anyone in sight and the brothers were united once again and despite the bleak circumstances, he felt joy erupt in him when he realized that the brothers were once again fighting together and protecting their people. He cherished the hug he shared with his brother after decades as they both realized that they survived even if their home didn't and then came the end.

His end.

 ** _"I, Loki, Prince of Asgard, Odinson, the Rightful King of Jotunheim, God of Mischief"_**

Loki opened his eyes.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: San Francisco Suburbs, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

Cassandra 'Cassie' Lang was listening to her favorite music and drawing a picture for her daddy's house (the other picture that she had drawn had been torn up by the annoying Government agents). Her daddy was her superhero and it also helped that he was an actual superhero too. Cassie paused in her drawing as she tried to pick a color for Hope's hair. Hmm…black or brown? Nodding and humming to herself, she settled on brown.

Hope was her daddy's new friend and superhero partner (which Cassie had wanted to be but was apparently too young for it) and Cassie liked Hope. She always played with her whenever daddy came to visit and she always had good jokes but most importantly daddy was always happy around her, well apart from the time when Hope had hated her dad and they didn't talk and only fought, but that was a story for another time. Her dad and Hope had just saved the world a few weeks before and that was what she was drawing. Hope and Daddy fighting and winning against bad guys.

"What do you think, Lexi? Will they like it?" Cassie asked, looking up across the table in her room at Lexi, her pet giant ant. A gift from her dad. Now Cassie had another ant, Anthony the Second, who was most probably on the drum kit as usual.

Lexi came forward and nuzzled the paper with as much affection as an ant could have and the little girl smiled and said, "That is what I think too. They will love it." With that she went back to coloring the picture.

Unknown to her, just outside her window, two of her neighbors disappeared in a cloud of dust and it didn't stop there. No. It went on to her whole street, her suburb, her city, her world and finally the whole of universe. All because, somewhere, the Mad Titan snapped his fingers in a desperate and mad urge to bring 'balance' to the universe.

What got Cassie attention was the 'clang' that ran through her house as something dropped in the kitchen. Her mom was in the kitchen, baking cookies for her. Did her mom drop something? Was she hurt? Cassie quickly got up and motioned Lexi to follow her quietly and the two went down the stairs.

"Mommy?"

No answer.

Worried with the lack of reply, the brown haired girl wondered whether there were bad guys in the house again. That had happened once. That was when she got to know that her daddy was a superhero and she had gotten Lexi.

Tiptoeing to the kitchen, she peered around the whole place, trying to find a hint as to where mommy was. But it was empty. A bowl of flour was lying on the floor and the flour was spilled all around it but there was no trace of mommy or anyone else. Only some dirt. Where did that come from? And where were the bad guys?

"Mommy?" she called again, hoping that her mom had only dropped the bowl by mistake and wasn't taken by some bad guys but there was once again no answer. Now she was getting scared and wished that she had a super suit like her dad or Hope.

"Lexi, can you find mommy? Please?" she asked her pet, who at once went to find mommy and Cassie went to pick up a spatula to fend off any bad guys.

Together, the pet and owner searched the whole house but there was no one there, not even in the basement. Scared, the little girl went out of the house to call Mrs. Avery, their neighbor. But instead of their neighbor, Cassie found chaos outside on the street. There was a red bicycle fallen on the ground that belonged to Mrs. Avery's son and Cassie's classmate, Kyle. Mrs. Avery was going around, calling out for Kyle while Gina, the middle schooler that lived diagonal to Cassie's house was calling out for her aunt and so on. Everywhere people were looking for loved ones, the dogs were barking and someone's pet hamster ran down the street in panic.

Cassie Lang ran inside the house just like her mommy and daddy had always told her to whenever she felt scared and locked herself in. Running to the landline, she dialed her daddy's phone but no one picked up and so she tried again and again before giving up and calling Jim Paxton, her step dad. Jim was mostly cool other than the times he and daddy fought and Cassie really liked Jim, so she was hoping that at least he would answer but when even on the fourth ring he didn't pick up, she almost kept the phone down. That was when she heard a faint 'Hello?'

"Jim?" she asked in a mixture of panic, relief and anger.

"Yeah. Cassie? Are you okay? Is mom okay?"

"I can't find mommy, Jim. And daddy is not picking up the phone and…and…" Cassie took a giant breath and continued, "…and people are missing. Kyle is missing and so is Gina's aunt, Ms. Sanders…"

"Cassie, honey, it is okay. I'm coming home." As he said that, Cassie heard a faint beep as Jim unlocked his car. "Have you locked the door? And the backdoor?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Stay with Lexi and Tony II. I'll be there in sometime." Jim said in a calm voice and then swore lightly at the traffic.

"Okay. I'll try to call mommy and daddy's cell." Cassie said and hugged Lexi's giant head in search of comfort. Anthony II had finally let go of his drum kit and was now sprawled on the couch next to Cassie's.

"You do that. Don't be scared. I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Ok. Bye."

And for the next fifteen-twenty minutes, Cassie kept on trying to get in touch with anyone – mom, dad, Hope and even Hope's dad, whose number was given in case of emergencies. But no one picked up. She looked up in fear as the front door unlocked and then breathed out in relief as Jim ran in the room and picked her up to hug her.

Between tears, she told Jim about everything that happened in the past forty five minutes and Jim calmed her down. He wanted to go and call out for Maggie but he had seen his own partner turn into dust, had seen their captain, their friends, suspects and civilians turn into dust particles and fall to ground. The roads were jammed with cars without their owners. Even now, he was getting alerts about accidents and panic that was starting to set in. And this was only San Francisco. Who knew what was happening everywhere else? Hell, he had even seen a news reporter on television, reporting from London, disappear into thin air.

He needed to get in touch with Scott and his people. This had to be some sort of superhero stuff. There had been news of an alien ship in New York. Again. Maybe this had something to do with that. Maybe Scott would know where Maggie went because Jim was a few moments away from a full blown panic attack and the only thing stopping him was the little girl in his arms. He needed to be strong for her. No time to breakdown now.

"Ok, Cassie. Which one of dad's numbers did you call?"

"All of them."

"Ok. Ok." Jim said, setting the girl down on the couch. "What about daddy's friends? Uncle Luis? Did you call him yet?"

"No." Then Jim went on calling all of Scott's associates till finally someone called Dave picked up and said that both Luis and Kurt were alright, but their clients had just turned to dust and disappeared.

"What about Scott?"

"He is not picking up but then again he was working on his superhero stuff so who knows where he is."

"Last known location, Dave."

"He went to meet Pym. So, probably his house at the beach. That's all I know man."

"Got it."

"I'll meet you there then."

"What? No. No." But by then Dave had already hung up and Jim sighed. He really didn't want to work with Scott's so called reformed friends but there seemed to be no other choice. Running a hand over his face, he turned to smile at Cassie and told her to put on her shoes. They were going to find out where daddy was.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Titan_

Tony continued to stare at the barren land, not seeing anything but not wanting to take his eyes off and face the reality. He had been in that same kneeled position for long enough that his knees were aching with a vengeance but the pain meant nothing to him. What could aching knees or a wound in the gut mean to a man who just lost everything? He lost the kid… his kid in everything except blood. There was no pain beyond that and yet there was. The pain of not knowing what happened back home. Whether his friends were alive or not, whether Pepper…? No, it was better to stare at the land and not see anything else than remember that he could have lost a lot more than his kid and newly acquainted friends.

While Tony was in a state of despair and shock, Nebula was overloading with emotions. Over the years, as parts of her body had been chipped off and replaced with machines, she had willed herself to turn into a machine. Unfeeling and uncaring. But now, after years of unresolved tension, she and Gamora had finally moved on and become sisters once again and once again Thanos came in between them. Like he had always done. Except, this time, he took her away forever, leaving behind a broken Nebula.

The blue alien was burning with anger and hatred, but the one emotion that surpassed them all was grief. Grief over her lost sister, grief over the death of her sister's friends, whom Nebula had partially started to like. In her current state, she even felt grief for the poor human child who had been dragged into a war that was beyond his years and had to pay the price. Despite all these emotions, what kept her moving forward was the mechanical part of her – the part that told her to go repair the ship so that she could get out of Titan and start searching for Thanos. The next mission. Always the next mission. But the emotional and still alive part of her would not let her move. It made her stay standing where she was, staring at the mourning human, wanting to join him and yet wanting to run away.

She was at war with herself.

It could have been mere minutes or even years, before Thanos' least favorite daughter felt herself moving forwards. Blinking her eyes in surprise, she wondered what had prompted her to move and then she saw it. The kneeling human (how was he still kneeling?) was swaying slightly as if his knees were no longer able to hold his weight, but even then he didn't move from his mourning position.

Normally, she would not have even cared. Would have just left him to his own devices and simply left. But these were special circumstances and in her grief clouded state, Nebula went to check up on the human.

"You." She said as she neared the human and realized that her voice sounded weird even to her own ears. She saw the man tense and stopped a bit away from him. "You are shaking… are you… hurt?"

"I'm… fine." Tony said gruffly, as he ran his hand over his face. Any chance of not facing the reality was now gone. With a start, he realized that the alien was right, he was shaking. His hands had slight tremors going through them and he was sure that they kept increasing the more he stared at them. His legs were completely numb and he knew that if he tried to get up, he would immediately lose balance.

A small part of his brain suggested that he was probably in shock. As soon as he had that thought, he realized that he was feeling cold despite the hot sun. Bringing his shaky hands to his chest, he pulled his hoodie close to him and zipped it all the way up. Tony gritted his teeth and tried to pluck up his strength as he stood up from his position. If he wasn't getting to ignore the situation, then he would for sure try to do something about it. Hell, he made his first suit in a cave in Afghanistan with scraps. He was Iron Man. He could do anything.

And so the hero kept repeating this as a mantra till he was safely able to stand up on his shaking legs. He turned his head right and then left, taking in the area and the situation. Gone was the emotional Tony of the recent years, the one who had successfully worked through some of his issues. Now it was time for the analytical and cold hearted Tony. Till they could find a way to reach Earth that is. He wasn't sure what he would find back home.

"Okay! I'm stuck on a god awful planet, in the middle of who knows where with a blue, cyborg alien. What next?" Tony mumbled to himself, rubbing his palms together to get some warmth back in him. Dammit! Why was it so damn cold here?

"We are on the ruins of Titan, at least a hundred light years away from any sort of habitable planet but a day away from the nearest jump point and we need to get off this planet before the night falls because it only gets colder here." Nebula said in a monotone. At Tony's raised brow, she tapped her mechanical ear in answer.

"Now, the main question is: How did you get on this planet?" she asked, looking Tony up and down as if that would give her an answer.

"That ugly ring thing over there." Tony said, pointing to the crashed spaceship towards his left. "We crashed it, so that's no use. I'm Tony by the way. Tony Stark, Iron Man." He extended his hand towards the alien.

Nebula stared at his hand for some time before remembering Quill trying to teach Groot different handshakes and tentatively gripped the Terran's hand. "Nebula, Galaxy-Class Killer."

"Assassin! That's great." Tony said enthusiastically, looking around for the ship she came in. "I know some assassins back home."

Natasha and Clint's faces popped up in his mind as soon as he said that and he wondered whether they had survived, if Clint's family, Pepper… Pushing the thought away from his mind, he went for his most trusted defense mechanism: humor and deflection.

"So, how did you get here, Smurfette? Can I call you Smurfette? You look like a deadly version of her if you know… she was like an assassin or something." He said rapidly.

Nebula tilted her head and stared at him. "You talk too much. It gets annoying. My ship did not have a good landing. I suggest we take the Guardians' ship and siphon some fuel from mine for the journey." With that she walked off towards a weird blue ship and Tony trailed off behind her, happy for something to do.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Wakanda, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

The silence that had settled over the surviving Avengers and their allies was broken by sounds of running. And a rhinoceros. Atop the animal was W'Kabi, released from custody only a few days prior to this battle. Following closely behind him was M'Baku, leader of the Jabari Tribe and some of their Tribes' warriors.

"Okoye!" W'Kabi yelled and jumped down from his ride, running up to his wife to check up on her.

The general lifted her head from the ground, where she had been staring at the dust that was once her king and friend. Turning to look at her husband, she said only four words. Four words that rang out clearly and halted all of the warriors in their stride.

"The King is dead."

Silence.

"Long live the Queen." M'Baku said after the initial shock of the words. He hoped that Princess Shuri had survived this battle, for now she would be the glue that held them together. And he liked the Princess. She was definitely brighter and snarkier than anyone else he knew and that was a good thing in his books.

Those words jarred Okoye and W'Kabi out of their shock and the general nodded and straightened herself up. She was now to protect the Queen of Wakanda. But for that, she needed to first find Shuri and so she barked orders and got transportation for herself and the remaining Avengers, who mostly worked on auto-pilot, still not having come to terms with the situation they suddenly found themselves in.

As they neared the palace, Okoye could clearly make out Shuri, Queen Mother Ramonda and Nakia standing on the landing pad. They must have been alerted of the warriors' return. Although it didn't seem like they were informed of T'Challa's fate, if their hopeful glances were anything to go by.

The leader of Dora Milaje steeled herself for delivering the horrible news as she walked towards the royal family. She could feel her husband and M'Baku following her, a step behind her, but standing in support of her. She could see some of the warriors helping Bruce out of his giant suit off to one side. She also knew that the heroes followed her at a respectable distance, only now coming out of their initial shock.

Focusing back on the task at hand, the warrior approached the current and the former Queen, looked straight into Shuri's eyes and brought her arms up in a cross over her chest, giving the Wakandian salute. By the sound of feet stomping and arm braces clanging, she knew that everyone else had followed her example and now the news was out in the open.

"No." a faint whisper left Shuri's mouth as she took in the warriors' stance. Soon, but not soon enough, she felt her mother's shaking arms go around her and Nakia moving to stand next to her, one hand on her back in silent support.

"Queen Shuri," Okoye muttered, just loud enough to be heard by Shuri and Ramonda.

Years of training and her childhood lessons were the reason that Shuri brought her own hands up in salute and said in a wavering voice, "Wakanda forever!"

As the warriors repeated her cry, Shuri turned around, her head held high and walked back into the palace. It would not do her any good to break down in front of the very people who now depended on her.

X-X-X

As he watched her from far, Thor couldn't help but admire how well the new and young queen held her own in the face of such adversity. The Avengers and their allies had watched the quick crowning of the new monarch by the hastily convened council. Apparently they had decided to forgo some tradition that took place. Thor was reminded of his own coronation aboard the spaceship – an event without fanfare or tradition, shared between a lost people and their equally lost king or in this case, the queen. Now, the council was gone and finally the mother and daughter had broken down into tears for their lost son and brother. The heroes stood to one side, unsure of what to do with themselves. Soon enough Okoye and Nakia asked them to go and freshen up before meeting up in the throne room to discuss their next step.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER 2**

Location: Guest Quarters, Palace, Wakanda, Earth/Terra/Midgard

Ice cold water splashing on her face was what brought her out of her thoughts. Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Natasha gripped the edges of the washbasin in her quarters and looked up at the mirror in front of her. Cold, unfeeling eyes looked back at her in a mocking manner as if asking her: what next? She shook her head as if to fling the thought out of her mind and watched dispassionately as the short, blond hair moved and hit her chin.

Blond. She never liked taking that particular hair color. It could have been because of Clint since he always told her that that hair color did not suit her. Not that it mattered to her. But now that she didn't know whether Clint and his family were alright, it was all that she could think of. Behind her, her satellite phone pinged as a secret, secure connection was established. Walking calmly to pick the phone, she braced herself for any sort of news. This number was only available to Clint and Phil Coulson, thinking about whom still ached her. No one else. Not even Stark, who prided himself on getting all of their dirty little secrets out in the open.

The assassin checked the time. An hour since the snap. It was time. They had a protocol, she and Barton, that whenever something went down and they were separated, they would give each other an hour before establishing contact. No more and no less. As she dialed his private number, she thought fondly about Budapest. That had been the last time they had had to use this method.

"Zulu-Lima-Foxtrot-Charlie" crackled over the phone in a familiar voice that made Natasha sigh in relief.

"Boston-Easy-King-Young" the blond replied using the Western Union phonetics. They usually switched between their own keywords but due to Clint's house arrest, they had reverted to their usual method of developing codes.

"Barton, is everyone alright?" Natasha asked as she slipped into her other gear, one that was not covered in dirt, blood and their friends' ashes.

"Yeah, all of us are. But… Natasha, we were in a restaurant and our waitress just turned to dust and then some of the other patrons. I mean… what the hell? What happened Natasha? Dammit! What happened?"

"You heard about the alien ship in New York this morning?" she asked.

"Wait. What?" Clint yelled into the phone and mouthed 'sorry' to Laura as Nathaniel almost woke up from his nap. Walking out of their room, he asked softly, "I have been on vacation ever since the house arrest ended. You know, the no connection type. Only brought the satellite phone and a few others for emergency. Are you saying that we have another alien crisis? Is this anything like Loki's stuff?"

"We had an alien crisis, Clint. We lost. It's over."

"Tell me everything. Hold on. Lila, Cooper, go to your mom. Yeah, go on."

And Natasha told him about everything that had happened since that morning. As she was lacing up her boots, there was a knock on the door and she joined Bruce and Rhodey to walk down to the throne room.

"Is it Clint?" Bruce mouthed to Natasha. "Is he ok? His family?"

Natasha gave him a thumbs up, still explaining the situation to Clint.

Just like her, Rhodey too was busy on call. He had called up Pepper to check in on her. Thankfully, she had been uninjured and only stuck in traffic as a result of half the universe turning to dust. Now, as she walked home frantically, she asked about what exactly had happened and how everyone was doing.

"I'll check in with you later, Pepper." Rhodey said heavily as they neared the throne room, where Thor, Steve and Rocket were talking. Well, Steve was talking, Thor was nodding solemnly and Rocket was just staring into nothing.

"Wait. Wait!" Pepper shouted.

"Yeah?"

"Tony. You never said a word about Tony. What happened to him? Is he okay? Oh please tell me that he is okay. Please, Rhodey." Pepper was on the verge of tears as she stopped and sat down at a bench, nowhere near to her home. She needed to know if Tony was even alive.

"I…" Rhodey uttered, coming to a halt and almost bumping into Steve. "I don't know. I'm so sorry. But he wasn't here with us."

Pepper inhaled sharply and said, "Ask Bruce. Tony had gone with him and that wizard."

"Okay. As soon as I find out something, I'll call you. Just hang in there."

"Pepper?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. She is okay." Rhodey answered the unasked question. "But worried about Tony. Bruce? What exactly had happened before you came to the Facility?"

Bruce answered, "Wizards happened. Doctor Strange. That was the guy's name. And umm Wong, I think. And then there was the giant alien space ship and Strange was taken away and Tony went in after him. And maybe even the swinging kid did. Not too sure about that one though."

"Swinging kid?"

"Spider man." Natasha answered, covering the receiver with her hand. "It's Clint. He is fine and so is his family. They have been off the radar for some time so he has no idea what's going on."

"Oh god!" Rhodey breathed out. "Tony is in space? Along with Doctor Strange and maybe even Spider man?"

"I guess. We could check in with the other wizard. He went back to their sanctuary, I think." Bruce answered, now worried about his friend.

"Sanctum." Thor's voice, gruff with disuse, rang loudly amongst them. He had not spoken much since the snap, reverting to only gestures and facial expressions. Now he spoke, "Usually, any place that houses magical artifacts are called Sanctums. I'm assuming that it is the same way on Midgard."

"Ok. Sanctum then." Bruce said, knowing that Thor usually knew more than he let on. If he had learnt anything on their little space trip, it was not to underestimate Thor. He had figured out that the only reason the god hardly spoke technical things with the Avengers was due to language barrier as even his 'All-translator' or whatever couldn't translate technical words because even Brunnhilde, the Valkyrie and Loki had had trouble explaining some things to him.

"But I don't know the address. I had just fallen in there, through the roof."

Once again Thor answered, "177A, Bleecker Street."

"How… how does he know that?" Bruce whispered.

"He is a god." Rhodey whispered with a shrug just as his phone rang.

"Hey. It's Pepper. I know you probably wouldn't have found anyth…"

"Tony might be in space." Rhodey interrupted Pepper's frantic speech.

"Damn him! I was hoping he had come back. He hates space ever since New York." Pepper whispered.

"Along with the wizard and maybe even spider man."

"No! Tony would not allow Pet-Spider man to accompany him."

"I know that you know who this kid really is. So could you check if he, you know, is at home or whatever? Also, I will get in touch with the wizards as soon as I am back in New York."

"No, Rhodey. Give me the wizards' details. I can't just sit and do nothing. This is Tony we are talking about. I'll go talk to the wizards."

"Ok. I'll text you. Be careful."

"…and where?" Natasha was asking Steve, the satellite phone clutched in her hand in a manner suggesting that Hawkeye was still on the line.

"Where what?" Bruce asked in confusion. "The Tower, right? Or is there any other place?"

"Tower? As in Tony's Tower?" Rhodey asked as he huddled in with them, careful not to step on Rocket's tail. "He sold the Tower and shifted everything to the Facility."

"Ok, then the Facility." Bruce said with conviction.

"We are enemies of the State, Bruce. We cannot go back." Clint's voice sounded from the receiver.

"We cannot stay in Wakanda anymore." Steve said.

"This is true. The people and the Queen are both recovering." Thor said in an understanding manner. "We cannot be additional burden on her, not when she has to pick up the pieces of her kingdom and mourn for her brother."

Bruce looked up at Thor and saw only loss and sadness on his face. Nodding vehemently, he said, "Facility it is. The Government would be stupid if they tried to do anything to us. Especially at this point."

"Yeah, well, they aren't exactly the brightest people." Natasha said sourly.

"We have to go back. If for nothing else, then the people. They would need hope right now." Steve sighed.

"Aye. That is also correct." Thor whispered as the doors to the Throne Room opened and the Council walked out.

"Is the Facility safe for us?" Natasha asked Rhodey.

"Yeah. Additional security features that Tony added on one of those 'paranoid nights'. Nothing gets in, not even Ross's people or anything that S.H.I.E.L.D. had."

"Great. Clint, you hear all that? … Good."

Natasha cut the connection and walked in to join her team.

X-X-X-X-X

Location: Recovery Room, Unknown

The brightness was the first thing that he registered. Then came the pain that made him shut his eyes and slip into unconsciousness before he could even breathe.

The next time he came near consciousness, wasn't any better and he didn't even try to open his eyes. He did try to move his fingers and was once again pulled under for his troubles. It wasn't until till maybe the seventh try that he was finally able to hear something and hopefully even remember it.

"…been too long…"

"…maybe not possible."

"…sure…tail…really?"

Unable to make sense of his surroundings, he willed himself to sleep. Maybe the next try would be better. It took another couple of tries, before he could successfully move his index finger as he listened to the people around him.

"We should give up."

"…probably for the best…"

"It is going to work! I know it."

"Patience…ah… patience would be good now."

That last voice sounded a bit familiar as he started to realize that they were probably talking about him. Were they the enemy? Or allies? Did he even have allies? Probably not. Best not to show any signs of waking up.

Too late.

"He is waking up. Get… get him. It worked!"

"Best… uh… best that I leave now. Yeah. I'll… uh… I'll leave." Said the familiar voice.

The next few minutes or maybe hours were spent by trying to ignore the crowd around him. After a few minutes, the few people remaining in the room had left and he was left alone with just one person.

A cool hand rested on his own and a calm voice said, "I know you are awake. If you can hear and respond, tap once."

At first he decided to not follow the order. Just because he was found out didn't mean he had to respond to them. But as the seconds ticked by, Loki decided that it was better if he pretended to follow the orders. There was a high chance that he would find out what exactly was going on. And his throat was starting to hurt him.

"Good." There was an audible sigh as Loki tapped the bed beneath him and then, "Try to open your eyes. The lights have been dimmed."

Once again, reluctantly, he followed the instructions. Where was he? What did he get himself into now? If something happened to him, Thor would personally strangle him.

Thor! His brother! He was left alone with Thanos because Thanos had killed Loki and now Loki was dead. What sort of Helheim had a healing room? The surroundings definitely looked like a healing room. And what sort of a dead soul would require healing? Surely, even he wasn't that damaged? Or was he?

"Loki! Loki!" The other person called his name, one hand on the shoulder and the other on the chest, trying to push him back on the bed. When had he even gotten up? Whenever it had been, it had been a horrible decision, thought the trickster as pain flared up in every part of his damaged body.

Breathing heavily, Loki tried to calm himself down as the pain disappeared with one touch of the other person's hand. It was a pinkish alien, with blue and green markings on its body and grey hair tied up in a bun. The god had never encountered their type before but could immediately tell that it had some sort of seiðr in it. Very different and definitely weaker than his own, but most definitely there.

As it wordlessly worked on Loki's injuries, the god inspected his situation. He wasn't as awake as he would have liked to be but he had worked in worse situations, so he could manage it. He assessed his own body first. His neck had healed almost completely and the rest was being worked on by the healer alien. All other possible injuries, it seemed, had already been taken care of.

He looked down at himself and found that he was wearing a light green gown of sorts. It was hideous. His room didn't fare any better. Painted in pastel colors, the most it reminded him of was a nursery in Vanaheim. Not up to his tastes either. Hmm.

There was a door just opposite his bed and it wouldn't take him long to reach it, but not with the present company. No. He would have to wait for an opportunity to be alone. The room had the standard medical things, minus a healing stone. Now that would have been helpful, but never mind. Moving on, all of the machinery were advanced… too advanced. That was when he got suspicious of his whereabouts. This sort of advanced machinery had neither existed with Asgard nor with Thanos. And if he was in neither of these places and Xandar, one of the most technologically advanced world, had been destroyed, then where exactly was he?

What alarmed him was the window in his room, or rather the scenery outside the window. It was dark and stars shone brightly in the distance. Giant metallic structures were visible and so were a couple of aliens in space suits. A myriad of colors was visible just on the horizon, marking the beginning of some nebula probably. It was too far to be sure of it. It also meant that Loki didn't have any sort of inkling as to where he was. And he knew a lot of parts and sectors of the Universe.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" a melodious voice asked.

Loki whipped his head around to find someone at the door. When had the door even opened? His senses, it seemed, were yet to recover from… the incident. The voice belonged to a humanoid with hair as black as the space itself and eyes that matched it. His eyes were completely black with something shimmering in them. Loki could barely look directly into those eyes – so old and so dark that it reminded him of the void. And that was something he was actively trying to forget.

But none of that disturbed the prince as much as the power radiating from the person, did. It was a sort of subdued power, like the type the Grandmaster had kept around him. It was meant to intimidate one but not to alert them to the truth of the matter. And the truth was what Loki wanted to find out. This strange power was not unlike the Grandmaster or the Collector's but it also had something else about it. Something that he couldn't pinpoint.

"You can sit up on your own now, if you want to." The person said and signaled the healer to leave and the god tried not to show any discomfort at being left alone with this powerful being.

The god gingerly sat up, pausing every few movements to see whether the pain would return. When it didn't, he felt comfortable enough to sit up properly, his legs dangling over the side. He kept himself calm on the exterior but was ready for any sort of attack. But before that, he needed more information about the situation.

Loki opened his mouth to speak but could only manage a croak. Clearing his throat uncomfortably, he tried again. "Wh-where am I?"

"Here. Drink this." The entity said, plucking a tumbler out of thin air and handing it to the wary prince. Seeing his reluctance, the entity said, "It is not a poison. On the contrary, it is an elixir. I promise, no harm would come to you."

Taking the gamble, Loki took a sip of the so called elixir. He was immune to many types of poisons any way thanks to his durable physique and nature and his time spent under Thanos. Still, it couldn't hurt to be careful and so he let his seiðr try to detect any harmful substance in the drink. There were none and so he swallowed it slowly.

The drink had almost no taste but had a sweet aftertaste. What really shocked the god, was the effect it had on him. His body tingled with warmth and he felt rested. His seiðr sang in joy as the elixir was absorbed into the body. He could feel it flare to life in a way that he had forgotten. He felt… alive.

And then came the headiness. He felt drunk on power. His own power. He had only felt like this the one time he had attempted and almost reached the bottom of Yggdrasil and the famed but never actually seen pools that gave it life. That had been a horrible idea and he had barely made it back upwards to Niflheim before collapsing from sheer exhaustion. Thankfully for him, the Einherjar stationed over there had recognized him and managed to take him back to Asgard. Unfortunately for him, Odin and Frigga had forbidden him from practicing Yggdrasil-travelling-through-backdoors till he came of age and finished learning all other forms of wielding seiðr. After that, Thor had kept him too busy with his foolhardy ways to attempt such a feat.

Now, feeling the same surge of power, he could barely keep the smug grin off his face. He quickly downed the entire drink and shuddered as his seiðr reacted strongly and he was sure that he glowed green and gold with power. Out of the corner of his eye, he was able to see the satisfied smirk on the entity's face and that was what brought him out of his power-drunk state.

"That was no ordinary elixir." Loki said, his voice back to its normal tone. He looked at the empty tumbler and then back at the entity for an answer. Now that his seiðr had been awakened, he sent it out to check on his surroundings, carefully keeping it hidden from the entity.

"No, it is not. I don't think you were supposed to just gulp it down. I mean, that stuff is pretty strong. I wouldn't know. I can't drink it."

"Because?"

"Compatibility issues."

"Hmm." Loki contemplated on that as he analyzed the findings of his seiðr. He was in, what seemed a private area. There weren't many rooms surrounding his and only one was occupied. The one on the far side of the floor. That one had an energy signal that he knew but couldn't place. The floor below him, however had a few more occupied rooms, again having energy signals that he was comfortable with. But other than that, the whole establishment that he was in, reeked of an old energy, older than even that on Sakaar. That one had been the Grandmaster's influence but this… this was different and much older.

"Your powers." Loki said, looking at the entity. "That is what runs the whole establishment?"

"Very perspective of you." The entity smiled and walked to perch on a small side table. "Yes. But I think you can do much better than that. I think, given some more time, you can find out exactly who and what I am."

"You give me far too much credit. I assure you that I possibly could not even imagine from where such old and powerful seiðr…"

"Oh, cut the bullshit, Loki." The creature said jovially and the god barely resisted raising his brow and showing his surprise on his face. "The fact is that people don't give you enough credit. But never mind. I do. I bet even at this very moment you are going through all the possible beings that I could be, aren't you?"

Loki gritted his teeth in annoyance. He always hated one thing above all and that was for the other person to know exactly where he stood in terms of his powers. Pasting a sickly sweet smile, he asked, "Maybe. But I am sure that I have never encountered one of your kind before. So I do not have any base for forming opinions."

"I think you do."

Loki remained quiet. It was a tactic that he had learnt from Odin himself. To stay mum and not say a word would almost always compel the other person to give away their position. It had worked a great many times and in great many situations.

The silence continued for quite some time till the entity said, "Two can play the game. But Loki, the time for playing games is over. So quit it. Go on. Do it."

"Do what?" Loki asked calmly.

"Your thing. Do your thing. Find out who I am. Aren't you curious?"

"What I am curious about is how I still live. Last I checked, I was being strangled to death."

"Patience, Loki. I know you have it. All will be revealed… but before that, find out who I am."

Loki narrowed his eyes at the entity and planned not to do his bidding just out of spite. He hated being treated as entertainment. That was what Odin's court, Thor's friends and basically almost everyone in his life had reduced him to and he refused to be just that. However, his curiosity was probably his biggest weakness at this moment and he knew he was fighting a losing war when his curiosity peeked its little, harmless head out to play.

Before he could decide on whether to voice his suspicions or wait for more information, he felt himself growing tired and weak. It was like coming down from a high and his experimentation in his youthful days were enough to let him know that it would give him a terrible headache. The crash, for that was what it was, reminded him of that one time he and Thor had gone on a diplomatic mission to Vanaheim and ended up partying with the royal heirs on that world. The two brothers had then slept for a week when they had returned home. He hoped that he didn't have to sleep for a week now, he still had to get to Thor or else Thor would be angry and an angry Thor was not good for his health… what was he thinking about, again?

Unknown to him, he was starting to slip off the side of the bed where he was sitting. The entity caught him before he could fall down completely.

"Whut 'ryu doin?" Loki's speech slurred as he tried to get away from the other person.

Sighing, the entity took the tumbler that the god was holding on to and said in a soft voice, "Maybe, that was a bit too much essence. Should remember that for next time… As for you, Loki, rest for now. You took too much in too less time. Your body is unable to handle it in such a weak state. We will talk later."

"…Mmm f'n." Loki managed to say as he lied down. His last thought as the person left the room and his eyes closed was 'Celestial'.

X-X-X-X-X

Location: Roof, Somewhere in San Francisco, Earth/Terra/Midgard

"This is so weird, man." Luis said as he looked at the equipment in front of him.

"And cool." Dave added, fingering the controls.

"I don't get a good vibe." Kurt mumbled as he avoided stepping on the three distinct mounds of dust behind the controls.

"Focus, guys!" Jim said, poking his head out of the van and held up a phone in his gloves clad hands.

"Do you have to do that? Wear the gloves? This ain't a crime scene, dude." Luis said, stepping away from the weird equipment at the back of the van.

"Why is that glowing? I don't like it. It's like Pym's witchcraft. Not a good sign." Kurt said, making a cross with his hand and muttering a prayer.

"I can't find Daddy anywhere!" Cassie said as she came around the van.

"This is his phone." Jim said, trying to unlock the phone. "Cassie, do you…?"

Cassie took the phone from him and typed 'No1GR NDMA' in the password area and handed the phone back with an attitude.

"Thanks." Jim mumbled as he removed the 30 something missed calls from Cassie. "If his phone is here, then where is Scott?"

"Not here." Dave said, looking around the roof.

The five had met up at Pym's residence at the beach but hadn't found any signs of life other than ants… a lot of ants. Jim had managed to find a few scribblings on a piece of paper in the trash and decided that the family and Scott had been off to do some science-y stuff. Then Kurt had traced Scott's phones (all of them) to some building in the downtown area and they had come to an empty roof with a running van and some piece of highly important equipment but no sign of any of the Pyms or Scott.

"There are only 3 mounds of dirt, so… only 3 of them are gone. Any one of them could be alive." Dave said as he eyed the dirt.

"What is with the dirt? It's everywhere!" Cassie asked as she looked over the railing to look at the city below them, covered in dirt and panicked residents. "It was there in the kitchen too." When she was met with silence, she turned to look at the sad faces of the adults and remembered Dave's words. Her eyes widened as she slowly made the connection.

"The dirt is…"

"Cassie, its ok." Jim said, pocketing the phone and going to crouch in front of his step-daughter.

"It's...its… mom… the dirt in kitchen… no…" Cassie's face scrunched up as she tried not to cry. "Is mom… is she … gone? JIM!"

"Cassie, we'll find out. I'm here." Jim pulled the little girl in to his arms as she started to cry and call for her dad.

The three ex-cons watched the scene as they wiped their own tears at seeing the distraught girl that they had come to adore over the years. They hoped, for Cassie's sake, that Scott was still alive and she wasn't an orphan.

All of a sudden, static filled the air and Kurt gasped and walked away from the console, muttering something about spirits. Dave rolled his eyes and went to look at the device as the static increased before giving way to the sounds of faint breathing.

"A ghost!" Kurt yelled as he ran backwards.

"ssie…Cassie?" the sound came from the talking piece hanging over the dirt.

"What's that?" Luis asked in confusion.

"DADDY!" Cassie yelled in excitement as she ran towards the control unit. "Daddy?"

"Cassie? What? Anyone? Hello?" Scott's voice crackled.

Picking up the talking unit, Jim asked, "Scott? Buddy, you there?"

"Jim? That you? Why are you there? What's happening? Where's Hope and Hank and Janet?"

"They are not here. I'll explain everything, but where are you?"

"Quantum Realm. It's weird. Can you get me out?"

"How?"

"Umm… not sure. They know how to… but the controls… umm… yeah… right to left… no, no, left to right. Yeah. Left to right, flip the three switches and then turn to giant dial in the middle, anti-clockwise till you hear a click. That should do it."

"Are you sure?" Jim asked as he inspected the controls and found all the things that Scott had pointed out.

"Kinda… like 60%."

"Scott!"

"Okay more like 40% or 20%. Ok, make it 10% but that's better than nothing. Anyway, do it when I say so. I need to change the controls on my suit too."

Cassie was smiling widely and practically vibrating with excitement as she realized that her father was coming back while Jim stood tensely and repeated Scott's instructions to himself. Luis and Dave were staring at the controls and looking around to see if Scott made an appearance while Kurt was kneeling on the ground and praying to keep the evil spirits away from him. Maybe, Baba Yaga was making a comeback.

"Ok… Jim? Stand away from the back of the van and… do it now."

Jim frantically followed Scott's instructions and hoped that he did it right. His Cassie could not lose another parent.

Everyone's attention was diverted to the glowing machinery in the back of the van as it started to whir and make some weird noise. At first there was nothing but slowly they could make out a figure growing bigger and bigger till the Ant-Man jumped out of the machine and balanced himself to stay upright before landing on one knee to hug Cassie, who had ran towards him.

Keeping one arm around Cassie and opening the face mask, Scott asked, "What is going on over here?"

X-X-X-X-X

Location: Parker Residence, Queens, NY, Earth/Terra/Midgard

May grumbled as she heard the knocks on the door for the millionth time. Why wouldn't they just go away? She was tired and this was her off-day from work and with Peter not at home and hopefully not in trouble, she could actually lie down and get some decent rest. Until whosoever-at-the-door decided to destroy this wonderful late afternoon for her.

Groaning, she threw away the blue and yellow throw and got up to open the door.

"I swear, if you are selling something, I'm going to kill y…"

May suddenly shut herself up as she saw a strawberry-blond in a business suit standing nervously at the door, about to knock once again. She instantly recognized the woman as Virginia Potts, CEO of Stark Industries and fiancé of Tony Stark. But what was she doing here?

"Umm, hello?" Pepper greeted Peter's aunt, just hoping that Peter would pop out of nowhere and hug her enthusiastically as was custom for the young boy.

"H…hi!" May said, straightening her top nervously and welcomed the business woman inside. "Um… would you like to have something?"

"No, thank you." Pepper said, giving May her usual press smile. "I'm Pepper, by the way…"

"Yeah… I know." May said. Pepper was one of her favorite modern day women-in-power. "I mean… Peter talks about you whenever he goes to meet Tony… I mean Mr. Stark. I'm May, Peter's aunt. But you probably knew that… because, umm… you have met Peter and maybe he talks about me or whatever…"

The business woman smiled fondly at that and asked, "Where is Peter?"

"School? I hope so. Oh, wait… I think they had a field trip to some museum today. He was pretty excited for it."

Pepper nodded as May went to find the slip with the name of the museum. She had a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling.

"Is there someone I can call to reach Peter? It's just that he isn't picking up the calls." Pepper said as May returned with the slip.

May frowned at that and asked, "What's wrong? Peter is not allowed to do his 'other' stuff during school hours."

"It's about the alien attack?" Pepper replied in confusion.

"Wha… what alien? Alien attack? What?" May rambled as her eyes flew open in distress. At Pepper's unbelieving look, she defended herself, "I had taken a couple of pills before I slept off and in this area you get used to odd sounds at all times of the day."

Pepper sighed and explained about what had happened during the day as May switched on the news to hear the same things.

"Oh fuck!" May exclaimed as she realized that there was no way Peter would have stayed away from such a huge threat. "Did something happen to Peter?"

"I honestly don't know." Pepper replied as she poured some water for the distraught aunt. "I just came to know that Tony had gone off in the ship with the aliens. I told him… I told him to come back but does he ever listen to me? Anyway, Spider-Man was spotted in the area so maybe Peter is somewhere out there helping other people out."

May nodded absently as she gulped some water.

"Ned."

"What?"

"Ned Leeds. I can contact him about Peter. They are joined at the hip and Ned knows about Spider-Man."

Pepper walked around the house, looking at pictures of young Peter as May talked to Ned on the phone. At the increased cursing behind her, Pepper turned around to find May cussing at the phone. She hoped that the lady had at least hung up.

"Peter went to fight the aliens. Of course he did." May said as she clutched the phone to her chest.

Remaining calm was one of Pepper's specialties. She had needed it to handle Tony and now it helped her to think through the situation. "Okay. Tell you what. I'm going to go and get someone to find some video feeds of the encounter and let you know what I know. You just sit tight."

"I can't. I'm…I'll go nuts. I have to…" May trailed off as she looked outside her window at the few policemen that were trying to get the vehicles off the road that were blocking it. How did she manage to sleep through an alien attack? "I'll go to Peter's school. Yeah. Maybe someone over there would know… or maybe I can help…"

Pepper walked over to the rambling lady and put her hand on her shoulder as a gesture of support. "I'll find out what happened, okay? Peter is like a son to both of us."

Walking out of the apartment, Pepper spoke into her phone, "Happy, I need your help. Get me to Avenger's Facility after a pit stop at Bleecker Street… Don't ask… we now officially have wizards."


	3. Chapter 3

**_CHAPTER 3_**

 _Location: Nix, Just outside of the Nine Realms_

"Mine!" someone shouted from amidst the crowd in the central market place in the main city.

"Liar! That belongs to me."

"No, it belongs to me."

 _Bang._

Silence rang in the aftermath of a blaster being fired at the center of the crowd from where the fighting had erupted. The three men that had been involved in the fight were blasted to smithereens and the surrounding people were covered in blood and guts as the shooter walked forward, swinging the blaster around casually and grinning at everyone. Picking up the precious metal that had been the reason of the fight, the shooter shouted at large, "Each for their own. Winners' keepers!"

At that declaration, some ran to the relative safety of their homes and the others ran forward to grab whatever their hands could reach.

The planet had never been a lawless land but ever since the influence of the Asgardians had reduced, Marauders and now the local thugs had started to take over the planet slowly by killing anyone in their way. It was either their way or death. There was no in between.

"This planet is as good as ours. It doesn't matter if you give us any recognition or not and especially with your brothers gone in the dust, it is only a matter of time before you die and the control goes to us" said the bald man sitting on a high chair, picking his nails as if he had not a single care in the universe. And he didn't. His tyrant of an older brother had turned to dust not that long ago and as the next in line to the strongest and most influential gang on Nix, Daxx could finally do whatever he wished and on the top of that list was to take over the planet by removing the reigning monarch, the Fuuma family.

Oda, the reigning and the only remaining living member of the Fuuma family, grunted as one of the henchmen punched him in the middle. He tried his level best to not look at the dead bodies of his family members lying around in the room or the dust that showed that his brothers and heirs were also gone when they literally turned to dust.

Instead, he was forced to look outside at the market place that was now overrun by the outlaws. The white marble of the market place was now covered in blood and ashes alike as his people tore all over the place, either trying to get away from the danger or taking whatever they could from the market place.

He desperately hoped for Asgard's help but had heard a few rumors from the 'Planets under Asgard Law Channel' about the Realm Eternal being in some sort of trouble. But nevertheless, he prayed for some interference from Odin's people, maybe even Thor himself. He remembered the last time Thor had come to help them out when the Marauders had been looting his planet. He prayed that the god would make an appearance once again.

Daxx gasped and stood up in disbelief as a rainbow colored light lit up the entire market place and deposited two people in the middle of a rune covered pattern. The outlaw growled and said, "Impossible! I had heard from the 'Nine Realms Channel' that Asgard was destroyed."

"If that was so, then where would the Bifrost come from?" Oda asked smugly as he recognized the red cape that belonged to Thor, although the wearer himself was unrecognizable.

"The hell?" Rocket asked as he looked at the dozen guns pointed their way. "You said this was a peaceful place."

"Indeed." Thor said in confusion as he took in the condition of Nix. The last time he had been here, he had restored peace to the planet. Why was it under attack again? These men did not look like the royal guards of the Fuuma family. "I had restored peace here some years ago."

"Eh." Rocket grumbled and took out his blasters. "I don't have time for this."

"Me neither." Thor replied and looked at annoyance at the people surrounding them with their equally annoying guns. "There's a better way, Rabbit."

With that Thor let the lightening that he still was trying to control, flow freely and hit everyone with a gun. He hoped that none of them were actually Oda's people but he didn't care. They had a lot of work to do.

Rocket raised his brow at that and whistled, "Well, that was easier."

Thor gave a weak smile and motioned the creature to follow him as he walked towards the huge cream colored building. Civilians and the henchmen alike, moved out of the way, not wanting to annoy the god further. Rocket climbed up to Thor's shoulder and his heart was heavy as he thought about how he usually did that with Groot.

While Rocket was lost in thoughts about Groot, Thor was worrying for the few Asgardians that had made it out of the spaceship before Thanos' attack. Without both Heimdall and Loki, he didn't know how to search for them. Were they even alive? Had they made out of the immediate blast area before Thanos had blown the ship up or had they tried to come back to help their king out? How many of them had been affected by the snap? He and Loki had tried to send as many women and children and a few fighters away in the escape pods along with Brunn and the Sakaarians. They would be capable of protecting the people. Thor was now afraid to find out how much of Asgard actually survived the whole ordeal.

"Look up there." Rocket said, tapping Thor's head as he pointed to a balcony on the tower that they were walking towards.

The king, Oda, was being manhandled by some thugs while a bald man in shabby black robes was smiling grotesquely at them. Thor's new mechanical eye focused on Oda's face that showed no fear but an encouraging smile. Oda had known Thor for the past century or so. He knew that the god could fly and he could clearly make out Thor despite the short hair.

"Hold tight." Thor instructed and waited till Rocket clutched on tightly to his remaining hair. Rabbit better not pull out the hair, Thor thought as he launched himself in the air and landed on the balcony. Taking in the situation, he realized that the ones threatening the king were not extremely trained warriors, just some men with guns and no morals.

"King Oda." Thor nodded at the king cordially and the king huffed in amusement as he watched Thor punch a few thugs while the creature on his shoulder launched himself with a war cry at another one's face. Within seconds, Daxx himself was kneeling before the god and Oda was straightening his robes.

"How fare thee, my prince?" Oda asked as he stepped into the palace, motioning Thor and his creature to follow him. He nodded at his guards to take Daxx in custody.

"King now." Thor sighed as Oda gasped and offered his condolences.

Thor looked at the mess that was the palatial family room and said empathetically, "Your family… I… I am so very sorry for your loss."

"My youngest daughter managed to escape with some of the guards" said Oda as he knelt next to his wife's body and closed her eyes. With a wavering voice, he asked, "What brings you here, Your Majesty?"

Thor explained about the war with Thanos and Oda replied that he too lost people to the snap.

"We would like access to your Galactic Communication Towers, if you don't mind." Thor said in conclusion.

"Of course. I hope you are able to accomplish your mission. My guards will take you there. If you would please excuse me, I would like to ensure my people's safety."

"Of course."

Thor and Rocket followed two guards to the communications tower.

After the remaining Avengers had convinced Shuri that they would like to return to New York to check in with their friends and family that had been left behind, Rocket had spoken his first words after the snap. He had wanted to go and find any remaining Guardians and go off to wherever they all decided to. Unfortunately, they had no clue where any of the Guardians were or if any of them still lived. After all, Thanos had gotten the Reality Stone which was what the remaining members had gone to collect. Thor had pointed that out to the raccoon but Rocket had been adamant and said that he could find their ship, if nothing else. All he needed was to tap into the Universal Satellite Network which unfortunately didn't exist on Earth and the planet wasn't advanced enough for Rocket to make one of his own even with the advanced technology of Wakanda. So, Thor had offered to take him to the nearest planet that had the network. Rhodey had also let Rocket take a piece of his suit that had quickly been converted into a homing device for finding Tony or Peter or at least a piece of their suit technology.

When Thor and Rocket reached the Communications Tower, Rocket immediately went to tinker with the controls to try and search for his ship, while Thor went to listen in to the 'Nine Realms Channel'. Maybe, somewhere in there was a tidbit of information on his people.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Svartalfheim_

The Dark Elves Ships' Graveyard on the desolate planet was recently accompanied by a number of bright blue, broken escape pods as they had crashed over the surface land not so long ago. Only an hour ago, the people inside the pods had stumbled out, some collapsing as soon as they saw land, while others going around to help the occupants of other pods. Korg of Krona walked around the pods with Miek in hand, calling out for everyone's attention.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Over here. Yes. Thank you. Please follow me to the meeting point. Scrapper 142 is asking to assemble everyone. She is the leader here and I'm her right hand man" yelled Korg as he gathered everyone and took them towards the Commodore, where Brunnhilde was standing on top of the ship and looking around for any sign of life.

The Valkyrie watched dispassionately as the remaining Asgardians and few Sakaar rebels huddled in front of the ship. Was this the last of Asgard? She didn't want to believe that but had no choice. Her training as Valkyrie and centuries of closing herself off on Sakaar had made her more hardened towards such things and she assumed the role of the leader as everyone turned to the last remaining link to the Royal House of Odin. She was pretty sure both Odinsons were now dead. She had felt the blast of the Statesman even from a distance. There was no way that even the most durable of Asgard's people could survive such a destruction, not that had Loki survived it (that weasel), she would willingly give up the remaining of Asgard to him. The guy had some serious issues and though she had found out that he had a slightly soft side when it came to his older brother, she wouldn't trust him with the lives and hopes of her people. When did they even become her people? Humph! So much for staying aloof from Asgard. The feeling of returning was something that she could not run away from and as much as she tried, she was starting to become comfortable with the people. She didn't know them, but she still felt as if she did. Looking at them, the warrior realized that they were all waiting for her to say something. Well, she did call them together, might as well say a few words.

"Asgardians!" she cringed at the usual royal call for attention. "And Sakaar rebels," she added and received a smile and thumbs up from Korg, "I think we have crashed on the ruins of Svartalfheim."

She had visited this planet once on her tour of the Nine Realms and she was as haunted by the Graveyard to her left now as she had been back then. Everything in her system told her to get off the planet but with no Bifrost and possibly no Heimdall, how could she achieve something like that?

"There are no days or nights over here as the sun was swallowed by that black hole eons ago," said the warrior, pointing towards the black hole that was visible even from the surface and was emitting minimal light. "So, I suggest that we move towards the caves somewhere that side and get some rest and we'll see later on how to get in contact with some other planet or Realm."

With that she jumped into the ship, grabbed a couple of bottles of Sakaarian liquor, some junk food that she knew the Grandmaster had the habit of stashing everywhere, a few weapons that she threw to Korg and a few others and a couple of blankets that she didn't want to think in detail about, no doubt they had a role in the orgies that Grandmaster had in his pleasure ship.

It didn't take the ragtag group of a meager hundred or less to reach the caves that she knew existed everywhere on this planet. At least this cave was big enough to house all of them without anyone having to split up. That was not something she was in the mood for. All she wanted to do was sit in a corner, drink herself to sleep and think about the situation at some other time. But she could do none of that. Now she knew why Thor was always tensed on the Statesman. The constant itch to check up on the people and care for them was driving her crazy.

Brunnhilde stopped the people at the entrance of the cave as she went ahead to check the conditions inside and hoped that she wouldn't find some skeletons. Those would be a headache. The cave was decent enough. The ground was smooth, more or less, and somewhere in the interior was a small pool of cool water that she knew was a part of the almost depleted underground water of this planet. Not bad, she thought as she arranged the survivors the way she had been trained to do so during rescue operations. The vulnerable in the center, surrounded by warriors and anyone trained enough to fight. She positioned herself at the opening of the cave to see if any threats came towards them. She knew that the planet was in ruins and the maximum life over here would be the few small animals that could survive such harsh conditions but she never let her guard down.

As it started to get cooler, she passed around the liquor to the people and they all took a small sip each, nibbled on a small piece of whatever junk food they could get and let the exhaustion take over. She knew that most of them weren't even asleep and were only resting but it somehow calmed her down. She looked at the bottle in her hand with just one sip left for her. It wasn't enough, her mind argued but it was all she had and so she slowly took the drink, trying to enjoy it for as long as possible.

"Do you need a blanket, Lady Valkyrie?" a voice asked from behind her, pausing her in the process of trying to get warmth in her by rubbing her hands together.

"No, thank you." She replied as she turned to face a black haired, tall boy of a few centuries. "You can call me Val… actually call me Brunnhilde or Brunn for short." It was no use trying to hide her old self if she was to lead these people or maybe it was the lack of alcohol talking.

"I'm Kari Urison." The boy said, sitting next to Brunn.

"You are Vanir?" she asked as she remembered that Kari was a common Vanir name.

"I am. My father and I moved to Asgard when my father married my step-mother. Now only my younger half-sister, Solveig, survives."

"I am sorry."

Kari nodded in response and then asked, "I know it is not my place to ask but do you think our king or prince still survive?"

"I don't know, Kari." Brunn replied honestly, pulling her cape around her like a shawl. "But we cannot depend on them right now. Even if they do live, they may still be engaged in a fight with the army that attacked us."

The two sat in silence for some time till they were interrupted by someone.

"If you don't mind speculating, does anyone have any idea how we arrived at Svartalfheim? It is at the bottom of Yggdrasil and we were somewhere at the top."

Brunn looked at the old man, older than even her, who had asked that question. She too had been thinking of the same thing. She remembered trying to get as far away from the Statesman as possible. They had almost reached the jump point when something had pulled them in a slightly different direction and a few minutes later, the Statesman had been blown up. She had passed out after that, thanks to blast shockwave that threw her across the ship and she was sure that she had hit her head against something.

She told as much to the people, who had given up the pretense of resting and were now actively listening to her and adding their own versions of what they had experienced.

"We went through a portal." said a timid voice amidst the children group. A little girl, who couldn't be more than a couple centuries at the best had spoken up.

"How do you know that?" Brunn asked softly as she waited for someone to claim the child.

The girl had caught the Valkyrie's eye movements and answered, "I alone had come aboard the giant ship. I have seiðr and I remember seeing and feeling a portal pull us away from the jump point before the blast happened."

"I saw it too."

"Yes, so did I."

"I thought I was dreaming…"

"Some portals can have gravitational pull if the caster wants it to have that effect." Said an old lady over the voice of the children. "I am Eda, a seiðkona. I used to teach the art to the children long ago." She offered in an explanation. "Whosoever casted the portal was very powerful, seeing that gravitational portals are not only hard to maintain but can also harm someone using it if too many use it at the same time."

"Okay." Brunn said, running a hand over her face. "Who over here are experienced enough to do something like that?"

"None." Eda replied, looking around at the children and the females in the room. "I doubt there are more than a handful who can even practice the art of seiðr. I could have done something like that were I conscious enough to do so. But even then I do not think I would have been able to get everyone across safely. My strengths lie in the art of healing and not in transporting."

Great! The Valkyrie thought, now she had to worry about someone powerful enough to cast a portal for them.

"You gotta thank them then." Korg piped up. "The jump point was destroyed from the shockwave of the blast. We would have been dead. Miek agrees, don't you Miek?"

Miek made some noise.

"He says he does."

"Well, in any case, that does not tell us how to get off this rock. Unless the seiðkona who casted the portal is coming to rescue us, we have to find out something on our own." said a sourly man.

"We could check if any of the emergency communications systems survived the crash." Biff, a huge, greyish alien with sharp teeth, suggested.

"And then what? None of us know the Inter-Realm communication protocols. We are all common folk, stuck here without any Einherjar or anyone else who would know it."

"I know it." Kari answered boldly. "I was going to work in the Royal Communications Division. I had completed all my studies. If we can get something working, I can access the Nine Realms Channel and get a message or at least an emergency signal across."

"Great! That's sorted then." The Valkyrie said in fake enthusiasm and hoped that they would drop the topic so she could get some peace and quiet.

No such luck.

"We should go and check that then." Said a lady, holding a sleeping babe.

As many others agreed, Brunn felt a headache coming along. She was so not built for a leadership role. She may have been her sector's leader and later the leader of Valkyries back in her Valkyrie days but then all of the people under her were trained warriors and her only job had been to give the instructions and knowing that the work would be completed without any problems. She could not follow the same things here, not with so many children and youths.

"Fine. Fine!" she shouted above the noise. Why was everyone so loud? She really needed to get some liquor in her system. "Let's go. Kari, come along. Anyone who knows Sakaarian systems can also come along. Everyone else, stay here and get some rest. If we are able to get a message across, then we would come and call you."

"What about those giant ships?"

"What 'bout them? Dark Elves ships would be out of commission. Their race has been dead for too long."

"No, they haven't been. Dark Elves attacked Asgard some years ago." Kari replied.

Before Brunn could react to that, Solveig, Kari's younger sister, said, "That was when His Majesty Thor and His Highness Loki came here to fight the Dark Elves. And then Prince Loki sacrificed himself for Prince Thor and it was all very sad. We cried."

"What?" Brunn asked in confusion as many other children nodded and even a few adults agreed to that.

"Sol talks of The Tragedy of Loki of Asgard. It was a play that showed the important parts of Prince Loki's life." Kari said and added under his breath, "Most of the girls became huge fans of Prince Loki after that. They probably had a group. I think they celebrated the most when it was revealed that he was alive when he himself came to save us."

"Please don't tell me you also worship that headache inducing piece of … person, I mean person." Brunn said with a groan as she got up from her place. Talking to the people, she said, "I'll give those ships a look too."

Kari got up and whispered to Brunn, "Not completely, but it is not hard to feel for him. A jötunn rescued by Odin and …"

"A jötunn?" Brunn asked, her eyes raised in surprise. Who knew that little weasel was a jötunn?

"Yes." Kari answered as they walked out of the cave, accompanied by a Sakaarian called Hax (that was the only part of his original name that anyone could pronounce) and a few Asgardians who wanted to help out.

"When it was originally revealed that he was a jötunn, a child of the dead King Laufey, most were furious but by the end of the play, you cannot help but appreciate him for his good deeds and works for Asgard."

"Uh-huh." Brunn said skeptically. This play must have been written by Loki himself. There was no way anyone else could see anything good in him. Although she was glad that he had come to their help in the fight against Hela, she had also heard enough stories from Bruce (attacks on Midgard, really?) and from Thor (mostly weird, fond memories of childhood and who really stabs someone that many times? albeit from a wooden, blunt knife, but still…) that made her wary of the heir.

"You don't like him?" Kari asked, gauging her reaction. "Not many did. He did many horrible things but he also saved us and not for the first time."

"So, it balances things?"

"No. I don't know. After knowing so much through the play, it is impossible to hate him."

"There was another play coming up, you know." Solveig (Sol for short) said as she joined her brother and Valkyrie. "A Saga of Brothers. It was rumored to contain details of King Thor and Prince Loki's brotherhood. I wish it had come out sooner."

'What an idiot', Brunn thought as she remembered that Thor had said that Loki had masqueraded as Odin for almost four years. He must have been trying to redeem himself in the eyes of Asgard for all the things he had done over the years. Yup, definitely an idiot.

"None of these work!" Hax shouted as he got out of the last pod. He was a burly, yellow colored alien with a knack of hitting things and then fixing them. He had been a good gladiator and was usually one of the openers like Korg had been. He also had a warped sense of humor that no one understood but not laughing at his jokes was always bad for the audience so everyone usually humored him.

"What 'bout the Commodore?" Brunn asked as she got into the ship.

"Beyond fixin'. I tried." Hax said as he followed her in and pointed to the radio that had a piece of the Asgardian gun that Thor had fixed in the ship before fighting Hela's army, lodged in the middle of it. "It's a through and through. All wires are cut. I can't just join them. They don't work like that."

"We could check the Skiff. Maybe it still works." Sol suggested as she removed the piece of gun from the radio using her seiðr.

"What skiff? You are a seiðkona?" Brunn asked. It was useful to have those around.

"Yes, I am. Still in training but I can do some things." Sol answered and sighed wistfully and said, "Prince Loki is a seiðmaðr, you know."

Kari sighed in irritation and said, "Sol here is a bit obsessed with Prince Loki."

"I can see that." Brunn whispered back and debated whether to tell the girl that Loki was most likely to be dead, but then decided against it.

"What skiff?" she asked again.

"According to the play," said Sol, ignoring the skeptical looks that Kari and Brunn threw her way, "the princes came here to fight the Dark Elves on a skiff through a portal known only to Prince Loki."

"If that is even true, then how do we find the skiff? And what's the guarantee that it is even in working condition? These pods and ships are more durable than a skiff and look at the condition of these things." Kari argued.

"Simple tracking spell," said a short girl with blond, curly hair as she peeped from under the fallen stocking shelves.

The Valkyrie sighed internally as she thought about how she ended up getting stuck with the children while the adults were checking other pods for anything edible. "And you are?"

"Magna Ingmarsdottir." The girl crawled out of the tiny space and Kari helped her up. Holding up some packets, she announced, "I found some of these things. They seem edible."

"They are. Don't taste that great though." Brunn said as she read the packet. "So, Magna, what were you saying about tracking spells?"

"Ah yes. I can use a tracking spell to find the skiff. All I have to do is look for Asgardian technology in between all that junk. I have to look for the specific seiðr that is present in all of the battleships."

"You are also a seiðkona? How many of you are here with us?"

"We were in the middle of a class when Hela's army had attacked so most of the class is here. That would be around 17 of us. Our mistress and a few others didn't make it. She protected us till Lord Heimdall found us."

"Magna, we weren't taught how to trace another seiðr. How do you know it?" Sol asked as they climbed out of the ship.

"I was attempting to teach myself some battle magic. Tracing another seiðr is a part of that. Say, Valkyrie, did…"

"Brunn. You can call me Brunn."

"Alright, Brunn, did the Valkyries have any seiðkona amongst them performing battle magic?"

Brunnhilde stopped walking and gritted her teeth in annoyance. That was not something she wanted to talk about and she said as much to the girl and left the children to join some of the Asgardians who were huddled in front of the Commodore. She didn't care if the child was hurt, there were somethings she wasn't just ready to talk about… maybe she never would be. She was fine with it.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Galactic Communication Towers, Nix_

Thor was intently listening in to the 'Nine Realms Channel' about the rumors spreading about Asgard and the panic that had settled in after many people had turned to dust. The king of Alfheim and the crown princes had turned to dust, leaving his youngest child, Draupnir, to take over the Realm. In Vanaheim, the king and queen no longer existed but thankfully Crown Prince Freyr had already been made king two months ago. The widespread panic in the aftermath of the snap had left many places unchecked and many rebel groups were starting to come out of the woodwork. Thor rubbed his forehead as he realized that he was essentially the protector of the Nine Realms and the weight of the situation was starting to make itself known.

He was lost in these thoughts when he felt a tap on his elbow, causing him to jump up in surprise. Rocket was standing next to him, reading something on a holographic tablet.

"I've got it." Rocket said, showing the tablet to Thor. "It's not the ship's last known location but…" he tapped on a few things, "it is the last universal satellite that they were registered on and if I input their trajectory based on all of their previous satellite pings, I would say that they were heading towards… nothing."

"What?" Thor asked as he passed on the hearing plugs back to the staff working over there.

Rocket shoved the tablet in front of the god's face and said, "Look! Here the ship just disappears. This is a restricted area. No life forms, nothing. Hundreds of planets in this area, all dead. Why would they even go there?"

Thor read through some of the details on the tablet and pointed out, "It seems to be correct, Rabbit. Look at the readings of this monitoring satellite. It shows that there are some sort of flying debris coming out of this area. After eons of inactivity, something huge like this happens just when Thanos collects all the stones?"

"Not a coincidence, right?" Rocket asked as he jumped to sit up on the chair opposite Thor's. "But, if the Guardians are there and unharmed, then why didn't they also get out of that area?"

"Maybe they can't. Maybe the ship is damaged." Thor offered weakly, already having an inkling that some of the Guardians might not have survived.

"Maybe. Worth a look?"

"Definitely."

"Okay."

"Anything about Stark yet?"

"Nope. He and the other dude were inside a space ship so I can't track them but… I can track the spaceship based on Terra's footage of it."

A 'ping' sounded in the room and the two once again focused on the tablet in Thor's hands that now showed a new page but with the same results as earlier.

"The spaceship also went in the restricted area?" Rocket asked as he looked at the readings. "What is in that place?"

"Let's go and check." Thor said and motioned the guards to take them to Oda.

After half an hour, the two were ready to leave. Thor had instructed the king to contact Rocket's communication device if he heard anything about any surviving Asgardians. Rocket was buzzing with both excitement and worry for his teammates and friends. They had become his screwed up family and Thanos had better not harmed them. Rocket didn't know how much grief he could take. Not after he saw Groot disappear.

"Ready?" Thor asked Rocket as he mentally repeated the galactic code that he would need to locate the nearest satellite to the restricted area.

"Yeah."


	4. Chapter 4

**_CHAPTER 4_**

 _Location: Svartalfheim_

Brunnhilde wished she had her Sakaaran clothes with her rather than the Valkyrie armor that she currently wore. As much as she loved the armor and the colors and maybe what it could stand for once again, she wasn't all that comfortable wearing it all the time. It reminded her of too many things and she couldn't bear to look down at herself to see the familiar colors bring back the memories of wars, happiness, adoration and grief all at the same time. She kicked a piece of rock aside as she walked across the battleship graveyard to find anything in working condition. Hel, she wouldn't be opposed to taking one of the Dark Elves' ships and leaving forever.

As she brought her hand up to open up the nearest ship to her, her eyes caught the familiar colors of this unfamiliar uniform. She thought about her own original arm brace that had a slight cut on its side (the only thing that marred the perfect surface) from one of the wars when she had covered another Valkyrie with her arm to protect her from some projectiles of whatever enemy they had been facing that time.

She didn't remember the war exactly, but she remembered what happened after it. After all the celebrations that were customary, the other Valkyrie had come up to her, her blond hair shining with the care that was provided to the Valkyries before every party (they had had a lot of parties). Brunn couldn't bring herself to think of the other Valkyrie's name, for that would reduce her to tears and she didn't think she could recover from that.

Halfrid – a name that the other Valkyrie had used on one of their undercover missions – had been the most beautiful creature that Brunn had ever come across. She had been sweet and funny throughout the party and a ferocious opponent in the training grounds the next day. Halfrid had been the leader of a faction that had been stationed just outside the Nine Realms for almost a hundred years. Having recently returned home, only to help in yet another war, she had been too tired to watch her back completely. Thankfully for her (and Brunn herself), Brunnhilde had been nearby to protect her when an enemy attacked her undefended side.

The two had hit it off immediately, becoming good friends within a span of two days. They had been inseparable. Whenever they got off from training exercises, they had spent the time together in the streets of Asgard and sometimes Vanaheim (Halfrid's home world). Fortunately for them, both their factions had been stationed in Jotunheim at the same time and in that time of almost a decade, the two had slowly evolved from friends to lovers. Who would have thought that their time together would be cut short in another six centuries?

Brunn furiously wiped the few tears that had rolled down her cheeks and cleared her mind to look around for anything in working condition. She checked the ship control station, the power grid, armory and storage. She hauled a few blasters that were still in working conditions to the front of the ship.

One could never know when one would need blasters. What if they came across a hostile race? And where would that be?, her brain questioned. Well, if they didn't make it off this godforsaken rock, they at least had weapons to shoot each other with and be done with it, she snapped back at her brain.

"Can I help you?"

The warrior automatically brought out her hidden knife to face the intruder. Seeing that it was only a slightly nervous Magna, she put the knife away. She wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone, let alone children. They never knew their boundaries and although Magna was probably the oldest amongst the children, other than Kari, that is, it still didn't take away the fact that the girl was still a child of only a few centuries in comparison to Brunnhilde. She probably wasn't even of age (a millennium).

"No, that's alright. I got it covered."

"Umm… I actually came to apologize. I shouldn't have asked that earlier question. I distressed you and I apologize for that."

"It's alright."

It wasn't.

The girl looked at her knowingly and said, "I'm sorry."

Fine. "Apology accepted." The Valkyrie said in a tight voice. "What's the situation out there?"

"Hax found a few Dark Elves' armors and Royd," at Brunn's confused expression, she explained, "the tall man with braided brown hair – he found some swords. Other than that, none of these ships work and the skiff is not in this area."

"Yeah, the fuel's empty here too." Brunn pointed to the fuel gauge. "The Dark Elves' used to use a fuel found only on this planet but now none of that exists and these ships won't work on any other fuel."

"Then we should move on."

The two walked out, hoisting the crate full of blasters and joined the remaining people who were waiting for them outside. Leaving the crates just outside the graveyard to be collected later, the group went to scout another location, with Brunn leading them and Royd and his brother, Hugi bringing up the rear. They had had two other companions, the Sakaar rebellion Biff and a half elf, half Aesir Astrid. Those two had gone back to the cave to give the few edibles that they had found, to the people.

They walked and climbed the debris of the ships for another hour or so before Sol asked to take a break and get some rest, not being used to such strenuous activities. Seeing the exhausted looks on the determined children, Brunn ordered a ten minute break and they all sat down on the somewhat stable remains of a ship's wing.

The Valkyrie had not wanted Sol to come to along with them, with her being one of the youngest children in their ragtag group but the girl had been adamant to tag along, wanting to become a battlefield healer like her grandaunt Eir, whom Brunn was surprised to know, still worked as the palace healer. Eir had been Lady Frigga's personal healer back in Brunn's days and had gone to work in the palace as a Royal Healer when Frigga had married Odin. Thinking about the beautiful and brave Frigga, Brunnhilde remembered Magna's earlier question and decided to answer it on a whim. She was sure that if she didn't take this opportunity up, she wouldn't ever speak up about it. Maybe, she did want to speak about those times with someone.

Before she could change her mind, she walked towards where the children had sprawled out on the tilted wing of a broken ship. As they saw her approach, the three sat up and Kari asked, "Is it time to move again?"

His cheeks were flushed with exertion and his hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat despite the cool temperature. Brunn felt bad for the children. They weren't used to anything of this sort of exercise. It wasn't fair to them that they were stuck in such a situation.

"No, we still have time." Brunn sat down next to them. She looked to Magna, who was massaging her hands and asked, "Did you get hurt?"

"No. I haven't tracked another seiðr in practice yet. I only know the theory of how to do it so it hurts a bit when I attempt it and get it wrong."

"You don't have to do it. I'm sure one of these ugly ships would be in a somewhat working condition and maybe we can get the message across with that."

"It's not just that." Kari answered. "It's about… it's…"

"It's about finding another part of Asgard over here." Sol completed the sentence, making Brunn feel homesick all of a sudden. She too wanted to see a skiff in the desolate lands. Damn the children! They made her feel emotional and that wasn't something she had been in a long time.

She remembered feeling emotional about seeing a piece of machinery during her Valkyrie days, when her team had been stuck on a moon outside the Nine Realms without any communication or any way back home and travel by Bifrost had been restricted due to the wars raging in the Nine Realms. It had been then, when months later, they had spotted an Asgardian ship and managed to flag it down. It had been a rescue team that had been attempting to find their group and one another that had been lost during a battle. That was the first and last time Brunnhilde had teared up about seeing an Asgardian ship. It was the effect of going through something that huge and now that the Realm Eternal was no more, now that they had seen it blow up into tiny pieces with their own eyes, the prospect of seeing another part of it, however insignificant was a constant ache. But she knew that following this want of seeing the skiff could drive someone crazy and she told as much to the children. She didn't want to make them suffer just by hiding difficult things from them. That was how the House of Odin had been brought down in the first place. That was what put them in this position.

The four sat in silence till Brunn remembered what she had wanted to talk to Magna about.

"Magna, ask me the question again." The Valkyrie said, looking at the horizon.

"Are you…ok… did the Valkyries have any seiðkona amongst them performing battle magic?"

Brunn dug the nails of her right hand into her left palm and said after some time, "A whole faction of them."

The children leaned forward excitedly. They hadn't known much about Valkyries except that all of them had died and the Valkyries as a group was disbanded after that. But no one knew anything beyond that. And now that they were getting to learn a bit about the famed Valkyries was exciting to say the least.

"Really? A whole faction? What were they like? What was battle magic like? Are you a part of that?" Magna asked rapidly.

"I don't have any seiðr, so I wasn't a part of that group. But they were the most vicious of all of us." Brunn recalled fondly, her eyesight blurred with unshed tears as she thought about some of her friends who had been in that faction. "They didn't even wear this traditional uniform," she said, gesturing at her uniform, "they always wore dark colors and everyone was envious of that."

"Why dark colors?" Royd asked and Brunn realized that everyone barring the Sakaar rebellion was listening to her.

"Well, if you are going to be one of the most dangerous warriors and use the ways of seiðr against a foe, you would also want to be covered in dark colors to make sure that none can see you in the dark of the night and all can only see you in the light of morning. Also, they were all trained by Hela herself and Hela loved dark colors."

"What? They must have been practicing forbidden ways then."

"The Valkyries were formed by Hela." Brunnhilde said and looked at the shell shocked expressions on everyone's face, including the Sakaarian.

"That evil lady with pointy hat created what you are?" Hax asked in surprise.

"Yes."

"That sucks."

"Tell me about it."

"The Valkyries were formed by Hela? Impossible!" Hugi exclaimed.

"Hela was the first female warrior in the history of Asgard and she wanted more females in battles. So, she requested Odin to form a group of elite warriors – all female."

Sol pondered on that and asked, "So, if the Valkyries were created by Hela and so were the faction that used seiðr, then why did only that faction wear dark colored uniforms?"

Brunn chuckled loudly at that. Trust a child to pick on the most insignificant information out of that whole thing. "Because Valkyries were to be Odin's special force and not Hela's. That faction wore dark clothes only because Hela insisted and so did the leader of that faction."

"Who was the leader?" Magna asked, wanting to learn more about this mysterious faction that was never mentioned in any history books. Not that the Valkyries were mentioned that often.

"Queen Frigga, of course!"

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Queens, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

Pepper Potts was waiting on the sidewalk for Happy, who had insisted that he would drive her everywhere. She looked at the link on the webpage and clicked it. She knew she had heard the name 'Doctor Strange' before. He was that famed neurosurgeon who had met with an accident and then had disappeared off the face of the earth. She zoomed in on one of his older press photographs. Yup, this was the same guy who had taken Tony away. How the man went from being a neurosurgeon to a wizard was something that eluded her.

The blond looked up as she heard the revving of a motorbike. She sighed exasperatedly as she recognized the black and red bike that Tony had once bought on a whim, as was usual with him. He didn't even drive a bike but apparently needed one. That man was out of his mind most of the time.

"Hey!" Happy said, flicking up the visor of his helmet.

"Bike? Really?"

"The traffic is horrible for a car. This is better."

"You just wanted to take it out, didn't you?"

"What better time than an alien attack? Am I right or am I right?"

"Just drive, Happy. 177A, Bleecker Street." Pepper said as she clutched on to Happy. She wasn't exactly fond of bikes.

X-X-X

"You sure of the location? This old thing is a wizards' hideout?" Happy asked as he stopped the bike outside the sanctum.

Pepper jumped off the bike and clutched her sides, "Oh yeah. According to Rhodey, it is. Oh god. My legs! They are jelly."

"I got you. I got you." Happy said, holding Pepper's arm. "Come, let's go." At Pepper's look, he said, "What? You didn't think I'll let you go in there alone, now did you? I should have gone with you to Peter's too. How is May doing?"

"She is… worried and panicked. That's why it's better that we find out where Tony went off to and haul his ass back over here."

"Hey," said Happy as he turned to face Pepper, "Tony is going to be fine. Okay? He has been fine in every other situation. He will be fine now too."

The CEO nodded and said, "I told him. I told him to come back. He said he was done with all this and now…"

"Tony is not one to sit back in the sidelines while something huge like this goes down."

"Yeah."

As they neared the Sanctum, the doors automatically opened and they peeped inside.

"Hello?" Pepper called out.

"Shh." Happy whispered. "Stay behind me. You never know what you'll find."

"Oh for god's sake, Happy!"

Pepper stepped around Happy and walked in.

"Welcome to the New York Sanctum, Ms. Potts, Mr. Hogan. I am Wong, the guardian of this Sanctum."

Pepper looked at the Asian man standing at the top of the staircase.

"I am here to find…"

"I know why you are here. Would you like to sit?"

Suddenly they all appeared in another room. This one with some couches and a TV. Giving a small, nervous smile, Pepper sat down on the nearest couch and pulled Happy down to sit. Wong sat opposite to them.

"You are here to ask about Iron Man and Spider Man. As far as I know, Stark went in after Strange when he was kidnapped and Spider Man followed suit. Beyond that I have no knowledge of where they went. I can only presume that Strange is dead considering the very thing he was protecting is now with Thanos." He said the last part to himself.

"What about Tony and Spider Man? Is there a way to find them?" Pepper asked, grateful that the man wasn't hiding facts to spare her feelings. She couldn't deal with bullshit right now. She was pretty sure that she still hadn't digested the fact that wizards existed and she knew that Happy was gawking at the room they were in.

"None that I can think of since I don't know where they went. I will contact you if I get any information. However, we most probably just lost our leader and many other members all over the world. I am now in charge and have to get back to work, if you don't mind."

Pepper and Happy looked at each other and got up in unison. Wong followed suit. The three were quickly deposited to the lobby that they had been in and the wizard opened the door for them. Pepper and Wong exchanged numbers before the two left.

"Well, that was quick." Happy quipped as he got on the bike. "Where to now?"

Pepper looked down at her phone as it chimed and smiled at Happy.

"Home. The Avengers are coming back."

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: San Francisco, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

Scott's mind was reeling as he knelt down in front of the mounds of dust that were once his lover and her family. His friends. All that now remained of them was dust. It was all too surreal and just too much. He could fight people misusing technology, could fight Iron Man and his friends, and could fight the Ghost but aliens? People just turning to ashes? How do you fight that? Could you even fight that? And where were the Avengers? Did they fight whatever did this?

Of its own accord, Scott's hand went to touch the dust which now was in place of where Hope had stood. Hope… his beautiful and strong Hope. Gone. Just… just like that. She didn't even get to fight back.

"She didn't get to fight." Scott said heavily. "She would have hated to go…like… like this."

He didn't know when the tears started falling down but he knew he had to stop before Cassie saw him. If he broke down in front of her, then she wouldn't be able to handle it. She just lost her mother. He lost his ex-wife, ex-best friend, his once everything. _Control yourself, Scott._

"Scott?" Jim whispered, crouching next to his friend. "Come on, man. Let's go. For Cassie, okay?"

"Okay. Okay."

Scott wiped his tears and stood up. Cassie was standing with Luis, looking sadly at him, as if she caught him crying. She probably did. She was pretty observant.

"Let's go home, daddy."

"Yeah. Let's." Scott clapped his hands together once and said, "But first we need to pack all this up. This stuff can't be left lying around. Anyone who can understand it can misuse it."

Within a few minutes, Scott, with everyone's help had packed everything up and shrunk it down to pocket size, including the building which was now like a strolley.

A few minutes later, Luis, Dave and Kurt left for Luis' place where the three were living and Scott went with Jim and Cassie, back to Jim and Maggie's. It was a silent drive back home and none of them wanted to break the somber mood. Scott had been appalled by the amount of dust visible in the streets or even flying around with the wind. Many police officers and good Samaritans were helping people out or removing the vehicles from the roads or helping lost people search for their family.

"Hey Tony II, Lexi." Scott greeted the ants as he closed the house door behind him. Somehow the ride had been exhausting. It didn't help that it took longer than what should have been possible to reach home.

Scott saw Jim stand in front of the entrance to the kitchen, no doubt looking at the last place Maggie had stood. He couldn't get himself to do the same and so he went about distracting his little girl from the disaster that was now her life. The ghostly silence of the house was interrupted by the ring of a phone.

Jim pulled out Scott's phone from his pocket and wordlessly handed the phone to its owner.

"Hello?"

Jim joined Cassie and Scott on the couch and pulled the girl in a hug. He needed it.

"Hey guys. What the hell's going on? ... Yeah… I was kind of stuck in the Quantum Realm… I don't have time to explain that… New… yeah I know where it is, I robbed it! … Fine… I'll see about that. … Got it."

Scott cut the call and looked at Jim and Cassie.

"Those were the surviving Avengers. They want me to join them in New York and figure out what to do."

"Go, daddy." Cassie said, pulling away from Jim's embrace. "Find whoever did this and beat them."

Scott smiled at his daughter and asked, "Peanut, wanna come with me? To New York?"

"Can I be your partner?"

Scott laughed and said, "Sure."

"How are you getting to New York?" Jim asked, worried about letting Cassie go anywhere but looking at the hopefulness on the girl's face, he knew that she needed to get away from this very house. For some time at least.

"There is a Quinjet over here in San Francisco. I have the address and it is completely auto-piloted so no worries about flying it. Black Widow had left it here for me in case I needed to escape or anything of that sort."

"What's a quinjet?" Cassie asked.

"A super cool jet. You'll love it, peanut." Scott said. "If we wanna leave, we gotta go now. Go pack some clothes for like a week maybe. I'll come and help you in a bit."

Once Cassie had gone with the ants, Scott turned to Jim and said, "Listen man, I get it if you wanna stay here for your job or whatever. But the offer is open. You can come along. I would need someone to take care of Cassie if I get busy with Avengers and frankly, we need to get out of here for some time."

"Daddy! Help me get the bag down!" Cassie's voice rang through the house and Scott stood up.

"Scott!" Jim called when Scott reached the stairs. "I'll come along. I don't think I can stay here. Not without Maggie."

Scott nodded and went to help out his daughter as Jim sighed and went to the mantel where a photo of Maggie was placed.

"I love you, Margaret. I promise I'll take care of Cassie and Scott too."

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Avengers Facility, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

The sun had set couple of hours ago and there was still no news of either Tony or Peter. Pepper was worried. Very worried. She turned around to pace the length of the living room for maybe the millionth time as she twisted her engagement ring in worry. A few hours ago, she had found the footage of the encounter in New York, thanks to F.R.I.D.A.Y.. But since then, neither the Avengers had called up with any sort of information nor had Wong. She had already called up May and informed the frantic aunt about the footage. She had offered for May to stay at the Facility, saying that Peter would return with Tony to the Facility first and May had accepted the invitation in desperation.

Pepper had sent Happy to pick May up from her place and was now waiting for them to return. The Facility, their house, felt too empty without Tony or Rhodey. Even the bots were not leaving the lab.

"Boss," F.R.I.D.A.Y. said, reverting to calling Pepper 'boss' in Tony's absence, "Happy is returning with Ms. Parker."

"Have Ross' people left yet?"

"No."

"Inform Happy to use the other entrance."

"Alright, boss."

An hour after Pepper had returned home, two black, Government issued cars had tried to gain access but without Tony's security codes, voice activation and bio scan, they weren't allowed to enter the compound and were stationed outside the main gate that was now locked. The whole compound was on lockdown after Pepper had initiated Protocol: Daddy's Not Home. (She really needed to talk to Tony about naming the protocols after pulling four consecutive all nighters.)

Now, they all had to use the other 'secret' entrance that Tony had fitted in the compound. Only the Avengers had access to that entrance and usually used to use it to escape the media.

"F.R.I.D.A.Y., inform me as soon as those people leave. Hawkeye is coming by road. He should be here at any minute."

"You got it, boss."

"Please don't call me that."

"No can do, boss."

"Pepper?" Happy's voice echoed in the empty house.

"Living room." Pepper yelled back, glad to have some company.

"Anything?" May asked as she entered the room. "This is a really nice place, by the way."

"Thanks." Pepper said with a small smile. "Nothing yet. But the Avengers are going to be here by tomorrow early morning. Maybe they'll have more information by then."

"I got Chinese." Happy said, lifting a couple bags.

"For an army?"

"Hawkeye is coming. He loves Chinese."

May looked around nervously and asked, "Should I even be here?"

"Yeah. It's no problem. Sooner or later the Avengers will find out about Peter. Tony is really bad at keeping secrets from the people he loves." Pepper replied.

"Boss, they are trying to establish contact."

"That's F.R.I.D.A.Y. right?"

"Yes. F.R.I.D.A.Y. say hello."

"Hello, Ms. Parker. Welcome to Stark Residence and Avengers' Compound."

"Um. Hi. Who is F.R.I.D.A.Y. talking about?"

"General Ross…" said Pepper.

"The guy who started the whole Accords thing?"

"Yeah. Well he didn't start it but whatever. His people are here and usually Tony deals with them." Pepper sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "F.R.I.D.A.Y., transfer their call to my cell."

"You got it, boss."

Pepper stepped out of the room to the corridor outside from where she could look over the compound and the locked gates. Thankfully, no one could see inside the building from outside. That was the first thing Tony had done while remodeling the place. Every single glass was reflective panes that ensured that no one could see through even at night. The whole place was protected from literally everything Tony could think of including alien attacks, although thankfully, they had never tested it.

"Virginia Potts."

"Ms. Potts, this is Justin Clampton and I represent the U.N. Security Advisor, who is in charge of the Accords. I need to talk to Mr. Stark."

"Mr. Stark is currently unavailable…"

"Dammit! I've been waiting here for the past two-three hours. The world is in panic and I need to talk to Stark. Now!"

"As I said, Mr. Stark is currently unavailable. This call will be returned later. Thank you. Good night."

Pepper hung up and sighed, hoping that they would just leave. What was a representative even doing here? And since when was someone other than Ross in charge of the Accords? That guy and his team had made everyone's life a living nightmare. Especially Tony's ever since word got out about 17 inhumans being killed due to the Accords. Tony had taken that up on himself and had been working nonstop to get some changes done in the Accords. He had been so close to getting some good done and now if the person in charge had been changed, then he might have to work on it all over again.

Pepper was brought out of her musings as F.R.I.D.A.Y. spoke, "Hawkeye is approaching the compound. I have taken the liberty to inform him to use the other entrance."

"Thanks F.R.I.D.A.Y."

"You have one text message from the caller."

"Save his name as Justin Clampton, do a security check on him and display the message on my screen."

 _'Please respond only on this number. Do a background check if you need to. We need to talk to Tony Stark or whoever is currently in charge.  
-Justin Clampton'_

Pepper ignored the message for time being and paid attention to the detailed background check run by F.R.I.D.A.Y. on Clampton. He was born in Baltimore and had served two tours of Iraq during his time in the Army. After retiring from service, he had joined the United Nations and now was the assistant to Ms. Cassidy Whitman, the Security Advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General. His track record was impressive, Pepper thought to herself as she read through the file.

X-X-X

"Welcome back, Clint."

"Thank you, F.R.I.D.A.Y." Clint said with a smile as he got out of his car. "How safe is the compound?"

"Safe enough for your family, Clint."

"Okay. Don't announce my arrival. Who else is at home?"

"Home?" Laura asked cheekily as she woke the kids up.

"You know what I mean." Clint replied, taking out the bags.

"Pepper, Happy and a friend of theirs is home."

"Friend?"

"I do not have access to reveal her identity."

"Ok."

"Your room is ready to be occupied."

"Thanks."

Clint Barton led the way from the underground parking to his room. When Tony had found out about Clint's family, he had insisted on turning the room into a suite to ensure that the family could come and visit anytime. He had assured Clint that no one other than the Avengers and anyone Clint trusts, would know about the family. This was the first time his family had actually come over and all because he didn't want to compromise their safety by letting them travel alone, especially now that the Government knew about their existence. Laura didn't like that bit about him but his job had made him paranoid enough to not let his family out of sight unless they were at Homestead, which had S.H.I.E.L.D. level security thanks to Fury.

"Where are we?" Cooper asked as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Avengers' Facility." Clint replied. "You are going to stay in my room. Well, room is an understatement. It's a complete suite, including a living room. I still don't understand why I would need a living room in my bedroom!"

"That's how rich people work, daddy." Lila replied, skipping ahead of her parents.

"Lila, next door." Clint called out as they reached his room.

After getting the kids settled in the room, Clint decided to go meet the others while Laura stayed back in the room to make sure that Lila or Cooper didn't decide to explore the Facility on their own. It was a superheroes' training cum residential place, she didn't even want to guess what sort of trouble her children could get into.

Clint came across Pepper standing in the hallway outside the living room, reading something on her tablet.

"Pepper!"

The woman gasped and looked up. "Clint! Oh, welcome home!"

"Thanks." He replied as they hugged. Looking at the ring on her finger, he asked, "You and Tony got married?"

Pepper almost teared up at that, remembering just this morning when Tony had been talking about having kids. "No. We… we were going to… next week or till whenever he could invite and safely get all of you here. He was trying to make amends."

"Where is he?"

"I don't know. No one does. They say space but…"

"I'm sorry. He's Tony and Tony is always fine, right?"

"Yeah… Where's the family? Nat said that they all were coming."

"The kids were tired so I dropped them off in the room first. Where's everyone else?"

"On their way from Wakanda. Come, there is someone you should meet and Happy got Chinese."

"How can I say no to Chinese?!"


	5. Chapter 5

**(A/N - Thanks a lot guys for all the follows and favorites! Do let me know how you are finding the fic. :D)**

 ** _CHAPTER 5_**

 _Location: Galactic Satellite #GSHN5438, Outside the Restricted Area_

Thor and Rocket appeared in a flash of rainbow colored light. The god shook his head to get rid of the lightheadedness. He wasn't used to summoning and using the Bifrost and it left him feeling dizzy. His mechanical eye quickly adjusted to the artificial lighting on the satellite's outer body.

"How are we able to survive here?" Thor asked as he looked at the space around him. In the distance he could see a dark area. That had to be the Restricted Area where the Guardians and Tony had gone. It reminded him of a black hole and the void, all twisted into one. The only difference was that bits of rocks (meteors, maybe) were coming out of the area and that was not possible in either a black hole or the void.

"They recently refitted all satellite's outer bodies till that bluish line to be able to support most life forms." Rocket said, pointing to some place above them, where a bluish line was formed by some tiny machines. Rocket tugged on Thor's cape and said, "Come, let's go find the dirt on that area and then go rescue the morons."

He went ahead mumbling to himself, "I have to do everything around here. Stupid idiots can't even take care of thems…"

Thor followed Rocket inside the satellite area and looked around in wonderment. He had never been to one. The Nine Realms were not allowed interference from outside forces and so there were no satellites over there other than what Midgard had. The god realized that Rocket looked way too comfortable in the satellite.

"Have you been here before?"

"Nope." Said the Raccoon as he climbed some equipment and changed a few settings on it. "But I have stolen information from a few others. They all are the same, these satellites and fully automated. The outside life force shield is only there for the maintenance staff that comes every 12 cycles to check on these bad boys."

Thor looked around at the foreign equipment and thought that he would actually enjoy this place were the circumstances any different.

"Woah! That's bad. Really, really bad."

"What is?"

"Look at this." Rocket showed a screen to Thor. "Look at the gravitational readings inside that thing. It's all over the place. Every single planet, moon, whatever in that area has been slowly changing over millennia and slowly speeding up. What can cause that?"

Thor looked at another reading and said, "That's a moon. Those rocks coming out of the area are parts of an unknown moon of a long dead planet called Titan. The satellite collected some samples to test it."

"Titan, huh?" Rocket said, inputting the information in a search engine. "Once beautiful planet… blah, blah, blah… dead 'cuz of overpopulation. Huh, that's not a first. Well, it would be for Titan. They were probably the first planet to die because of overpopulation."

"It's Thanos' home planet." Thor said as he showed a picture of what the inhabitants of the planet would have looked like. "These things look like him."

"That they do. So, big ugly went home and met with the Guardians and your Terran friends." Rocket mumbled. This was not looking so good for anyone over there.

"I've got the location coordinates of the planet. Let's go." Thor said.

The raccoon nodded and put back everything as he had found it and the two went outside.

 _Location: Healing/Resting Area, Unknown_

"Is he awake yet?" asked a tall woman as she entered the healing/resting area in the ancient establishment. She was currently dressed in Terran clothes and even looked like a Terran, with her brown hair, floating around her. Okay, so maybe not that Terran. As far as the others knew, Terrans didn't have floating hair. Maybe.

"Not yet" replied a man with white hair wearing a dark red suit with a white fur cape.

"I see that even being attacked and hurt by the Power Stone hasn't made you change your horrible dressing sense, Tivan."

"It's way better than wearing black all the time."

"You both bicker like children" said another man, standing next to the ceiling to floor window, looking in to the vast space in front of him. His eyes reflected the space to the last speck.

"Says the one who fed him the essence so soon."

The lady gasped and asked, "You did what? Even I don't know if he could have died from that or not."

"Are you returning from Terra, D?" asked the man as he turned around to face one of his earliest companions.

"Yes, stopped on a couple other planets on the way. Its complete chaos. I don't like it. Trop might."

"He does. Just left for another round of the galaxy." A man said as he sipped some purple colored drink and eyeing the game board in front of him.

"Oh, you are here. Where is your remaining group?" D said, moving a piece on the board, much to the man's annoyance.

"Not interested, the lot of them. Well, whoever is still alive isn't. I heard that Ego was killed by his own son."

"Good riddance! He always annoyed me."

"What about you, En Dwi? Are you interested?" D asked, ignoring Tivan's outburst.

"I wouldn't be rotting here if I wasn't."

"Ah! I see the fighting has started without me" said another lady as she entered the room. She was shorter than the first lady and looked somewhat like her brother as they had same reflective black eyes and mannerisms.

"Sis, come on. You know none of us can stand each other at all." The man left the window side and came to give his sister a hug.

"Except you, Ter. You don't really care." She sighed and said, "It's too empty out there with half of the souls gone."

"Which is why, the sooner he gets up, the sooner we can start everything." Ter said.

"You fed him too much essence." Tivan, The Collector said.

"You what?"

"Finney, it's not that bad. I needed to check if he was even compatible. If he wasn't, it was better that he died now. He would be of no use to us."

D groaned. "I didn't give up a soul to you just so you could try to kill him so soon. This is the third time he had escaped from me after actually dying and many more times when he was pulled away from me."

"You are just salty that he is one of the few that always manages to escape." Trop said, entering the room. He was wearing a black and red robe with wild, flaming red hair and black eye make-up. Sitting his tall, muscled frame down opposite Tivan, he said, "It's wonderful out there. Do we have to change it?"

"YES!" everyone shouted as one.

The sounds of running stopped their talks just as one of the healers entered the room and announced that their patient was awake.

X-X-X

Loki glared at the person hovering next to him. He was getting sick of being surrounded by people. He just wanted to get out of wherever he was and he would have done so had he not felt the need to find out the identity of the powerful being he had talked to earlier. Ever since he woke up, he had been thinking about the entity and the 'elixir' that he had been given.

At first he had thought that the entity was a celestial, but the more he thought about it, the less sense it made to him. Why would a celestial be interested in him? Sure, he was powerful and all that but in front of a celestial? His powers were nothing. Well, not nothing, but not enough either. Loki was so sure that he had died. No one ever escaped Thanos, then why was he alive and sitting here in this room being treated with care?

The origin of the so called elixir also evaded him. Loki wished he still had the tumbler with him, at least then he could have run some tests on it and try to figure its origin out. Maybe then he could figure out why his seiðr reacted strongly to it. Before he could continue down this particular train of thought, the door opened and the entity from before came in and motioned the other person to step out.

"Feeling any better? About time you woke up."

"How long have I been asleep then?

"Time is relative." Ter said with a shrug. "It is different for different people, different for different sections of the universe."

"And what about this place? What is time like in this particular place?"

"Stagnant. But that does not mean that time does not pass out there," said the entity as he pointed out of the window.

Loki pondered over that. A place where time did not pass at all? It was unheard of! He had been to places where time was faster or slower than Asgard but never to some place that did not have it at all. If time did not pass in this place, then how was he to know how much time had passed for Thor? Had Thanos been defeated or had it only been a few minutes since he had died?

"In that case, how long ago had I died in terms of Midgardian time?" Loki understood Midgardian time. It was almost the same as Asgardian time, except for the length of the days and now that Asgard didn't exist, it was easier to think of the place where Thor had decided to make a home for their people.

"A Midgardian or Terran, as I would call it, century."

"A century?!"

"But on Terra, not even a complete day has passed yet. A century would take into consideration all the different time zones you have crossed to reach here. But then you know all about how time is manipulated in different places, say, like the void. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Loki replied nonchalantly. He had a reason and that was whether to know if Thanos would have reached Midgard and would the plan have worked? But he had no clue about either of them. He didn't know anything about the whereabouts of the soul stone and it depended on whether Thanos was yet to get the soul stone or not.

"Did you find out the answer to my earlier question?"

"If I were to speculate," Loki said, still unsure about the whole celestial theory, "I would say celestial."

Ter smiled at that and asked, "And what makes you say that? How did you reach that conclusion? I'm all about the intricate details, you see."

Loki smirked and replied, "I don't tell anyone my trade secrets. Now I suppose, you owe me a few answers."

Ter nodded and pulled up a chair to sit in. "You were close enough. Ask away and then we would have to meet a few others."

Others? Loki thought to himself. There were more of this entity? He let his seiðr go around and realized that at the far end of the corridor was a room full of entities radiating the same sort of power as the one in front of him did. What did he get dragged into now?

Pushing all these thoughts away, he asked the question that had been troubling him for some time, "How and why am I alive? Thanos had killed me."

"He did but we brought you back and healed you. That's how you are alive and as for why… well, you would need to meet the others for that."

Loki didn't let his apprehension show on his face. What use would a bunch of celestials have for him? "Where exactly in the universe are we?"

"At the bottom of it. You'll hopefully understand it later on. Now, one last question before we go meet the others."

"Who are you?"

The entity smiled widely and stood up. As he stood, his form changed. He was still more or less humanoid but now his whole body looked like it was wearing a cloak made out of the universe itself. Stars, nebulae, galaxies, they all littered his body in a fusion of colors against the black backdrop. His form kept shimmering every few seconds and the alignment on his body changed every single time. Loki had never seen something like the entity, even in pictures.

"Sure you have." The entity said, his voice now sounding from everyplace at once. "Not this very form, but you have seen a form of me in one picture. Just the one."

Loki gulped as he felt a wave power erupt from the entity and he realized that he had encountered a similar energy in a couple of situations and all of them involving the Infinity Stones. Why were the energies of this entity and the stones similar?

The god tried to remember all that he had learnt about the Infinity Stones over the years. They were different singularities, representing the aspects of the universe. Loki tried to remember that one night he had gone to Knowhere in the disguise of a wealthy trader and gotten the Collector drunk enough to talk freely about his collection. What had he said about their creation? Loki remembered the whole talk being accompanied by some holographic presentation.

"Almost there, Loki." The entity whispered encouragingly, wanting Loki to figure it out on his own rather than being told.

Unfortunately for him, just then the door opened to reveal an annoyed Finney and she spoiled the surprise reveal by saying, "This is Eternity, the biggest drama queen in the multiverse all because he has too much time on his hands. Literally." Snapping her fingers, she snapped, "Now let's go. We all have work to do."

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Somewhere over North Atlantic Ocean, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

The Dagger-AV sped through the night sky over the North Atlantic Ocean as the tired Avengers made their way back home. The black, sleek aircraft was a better, Wakandan version of the Avengers Quinjet. The Dagger-AV or DAV had been assigned to Captain America's team when the Avengers had split some years ago and the good Captain's team had taken up refuge in Wakanda. Shuri had insisted that they keep the tech with them. It would serve to remind them that they always had Wakanda's help no matter the situation.

Natasha was in the pilot's seat, keeping one hand on the controls and her head rested on the other. She didn't really even need to sit there in the slightly uncomfortable chair as the bird had been on autopilot ever since they left Wakanda, but she wasn't interested in going back where the remaining Avengers were sitting in an oppressive silence.

None of them were accustomed to failure, having always excelled in whatever field they had been working in. Natasha had never had a failed mission other than the time Clint had caught her but that had only been the beginning of a new and better life. But this had not been just any mission. She was no longer the operative who engaged in cold murder, now she fought to save people and she hadn't been able to do just that. The Avengers had never lost, not when they fought Loki's army and not when they fought murderous robots and everything in between. They had losses but the people saved were always far more than the people they failed to save. Except this time. This mindless deed of the Titan was not something she could comprehend. She tried, just for one minute, to wonder how life on other planets would have been snuffed out just like on Earth, but she couldn't even begin to think about it. Maybe that was why Thor had been so worried. He must have been thinking about his own planet. She tried to feel sorry for Thor, for Shuri, the two monarchs who were left with half a kingdom but she couldn't feel anything. She felt numb. She needed action, craved it as an outlet. _Clint_ , her mind supplied, before she could lose herself in this numbness and so she thought about the family that had adopted her as one of their own. She felt grateful for them being intact and looked forward to seeing them. She had heard that children brought happiness in even the worst of times and she now wanted to see her godchildren, see them laugh and joke, see them fight and most importantly, see them bring a smile to everyone's face.

Steve, too hadn't seen failure of this scale in his life. As Captain America, he had either entertained people or saved them, barring Bucky and now he had once again not only failed to save Bucky but also half of the entire universe. The out of time soldier could not imagine such power even existing anywhere. When he had first learnt about the Tesseract back in his days, that was the strangest thing he had ever seen and now within the one decade of being up and about again, he had witnessed aliens and gods and sentient, murderous robots and now a power source capable of destroying the entire universe. He needed to release the anger inside him, thought the soldier as he actively tried not to destroy anything in the aircraft. But all he could think about was how Bucky had almost been healed, how his mind was more or less his own now, how he didn't have to stay in Wakanda for treatment for more than maybe a month or two and now all of a sudden, in literally a snap of fingers, his oldest friend, his brother-in-arms, the only one who knew what it was like to be enhanced and be out of time, was gone. Forever. This time the pain of losing Bucky was far more than what it had been the first time round. Steve felt as if every single loss in his life was suddenly enhanced, in focus and playing in front of his eyes. He turned his face away from his broken team and looked out of window as he let the tears finally fall. He would mourn now. Come tomorrow, they would need to find a way to help others, but this moment was just for him and all that he had lost.

Rhodey looked at Bruce, who was sleeping, not calmly but still sleeping, and he wished he could have done just that and take a step away from the world. Bruce had fallen asleep a few minutes after they had left the hidden country, having been too tired from his space adventures and for that Rhodey did not envy Banner.

The War Machine typed his security password once again as he looked at Pepper's message from a couple of hours ago. He had read the message so many times that he could recite it from memory but he looked at the words again, hoping they would offer up some new information this time. It was about her finding some footage of the encounter with the aliens aboard the spaceship. She confirmed that both Tony and Spider Man had gone in after Doctor Strange. Pepper had offered the family of Spider Man to come to the Facility and wait for any other information together over there.

Rhodey sighed in irritation. There was no new message. Why would there be? How would anyone know where his best friend was anyway? Thor too, had been skeptical about being able to find Tony or anyone else out in the space. The space was huge and they had no idea where the spaceship had gone off to. He opened the gallery folder and looked at the pictures from a few months before. It had been a small celebration of Tony and Pepper finally getting engaged. The two had been upset that not all their friends could be there but Tony had been adamant that he wasn't ready yet to talk to Steve. He had wanted more time to let go of his anger over how Steve had hidden such important details from him but now all Rhodey could think of was how the two friends should have made amends before the shit hit the fan. Because if something had happened to Tony… he couldn't even complete the thought. He didn't want to think of a life without his best friend by his side. They had never been separated ever since they met in college, always doing things together. Neither gave up when the other was in danger or in need of help but now the War Machine could do nothing but sit helplessly as he wondered where his friend had gone off to.

Bruce Banner, the guy with 7 PhDs and a monster inside of him was faking sleep to escape looking at the defeated faces of his team members. A part of him that probably belonged to Hulk, thought that he should have just stayed on the stupid alien planet that Thor had found him on. At least then he wouldn't have to worry about anything. Another reason that he was faking sleep was to avoid any accusatory glances that might be thrown his way. He knew his team better than that, knew that they wouldn't accuse him of not being able to bring out the Hulk (or maybe they were just too pure of heart to actually accuse him of that) but years of being on the short end of the stick had turned him into being wary of everything.

All his life, when he didn't want the Hulk to come out, the green rage monster always did and now when they had needed him, the Hulk had simply shouted 'NO' and returned to whatever he was doing when Bruce was in charge. Why? Why would the Hulk not help them? Was it because Tony had not been there? The Hulk was fond of his tiny Tin Man but he had refused to come out even when they had been with Tony. So what was it? It wasn't that the monster was averse to fighting. On the contrary, he reveled in it, had apparently loved the wild planet they had been living on. Was it because he didn't have his latest friend, Angry Girl, with him? Did he want Brunnhilde around with him? Or was it something else? The questions gave Bruce as much headache as the rage monster usually did.

Everyone was pulled out of their musings as Rhodey's phone chimed and they all turned in unison to look at the little piece of technology in his hands. Steve still could not believe that he had become so dependent on technology. He hadn't liked much of Howard Stark's creations due to just the reason that he would become dependent on them and now he was relying on Tony Stark's creations.

Rhodey sighed as he finished reading the message. "It's Pepper. She says that some guy from U.N. is there, so she put the whole place on lockdown. Also, Clint and his family have reached safely and there is still no word of Tony or anyone else."

"Why the U.N.? How come Ross is not all over this?" Natasha asked as she read the message that she just received from Scott.

"Dunno. But it seems that the U.N. Security Advisor is in charge." Rhodey replied as he went over the details of the text once again.

"They better not be hounding for our heads," said Bruce in a tired voice. He really wanted to sleep but he didn't think he could till he reached the safety of the Facility.

Natasha closed her phone and informed the others, "Scott is on the way from San Francisco. We probably would be reaching around the same time he does and he is getting his daughter and his ex-wife's fiancé with him. His daughter was in the house when his ex-wife turned to dust and he was with the Pyms. They too are gone now. He didn't want to leave his daughter or the fiancé alone over there."

"How is the daughter doing?" Steve asked.

"Who is Scott?"

"Scott's Ant Man and his daughter is probably confused, upset. He didn't write much except what I said."

"Wait, Pym as in Hank Pym?" Bruce asked again. What all had happened in his absence?

"Yeah, that guy. Tony's business rival and the creator of Ant Man suit. Apparently he used to be Ant Man long ago and gave it up when he lost his wife to this superhero stuff." Rhodey answered. He and Tony had made a protected file on each Avenger and their new allies to know whom all to protect if the need ever arose.

"I missed a lot." Bruce whispered to himself.

"Yeah, we have inhumans now." Before Bruce could ask, Rhodey replied, "Humans who were experimented on by aliens long, long ago. Their identities were revealed due to the Accords."

"And they died because of that." Steve said.

"And Tony was trying to right all of that." Rhodey fired back.

"Can we not do this now?" Natasha said, not wanting a fight to break out. The Accords had already driven a wedge between them all when they were at their best. She didn't want to think what it could do when they were all so low.

"We should probably contact Fury or S.H.I.E.L.D." suggested Steve.

"I thought S.H.I.E.L.D. was gone?"

"It was but its back and they signed the Accords to be able to operate legally again. Clint and I are no longer part of it because Fury doesn't run it and we don't know who does and well, they signed the Accords." Black Widow said and added, "So did I. Sign the Accords, I mean."

"You did? I thought you didn't like them." Bruce asked.

"I don't. But it's just Tony and Rhodey out there and they would need more people to fight alongside them. Ironically, I never heard Spider Man becoming a part of it. Anyway, because I joined Steve, I became a fugitive."

Rhodey looked out of the window and said, "Spider Man is still in school as far as I know. He is literally a kid. Tony didn't want him or his family to be hounded by the Government." He didn't add that Spider Man had actually refused to reveal his identity. Tony had told him that once.

"That's what I call double standards. Tony always…"

"The man could be dead for god's sake, Natasha! I don't want to hear another damn word. The Accords are not perfect, Tony's not perfect but dammit he was trying!" Rhodey defended his absent friend. "He was going to bury the hatchet and get you all into the country without detection and then somehow make you legal citizens again, just so you all could attend his wedding. He was working on all of this and he had left the superhero stuff to settle down and now he got dragged into all this, went to space, the very place he had nightmares about…"

"He did tell me that." Bruce interrupted.

"… and he could be dead." Rhodey said, all fight going out of him at the thought that he had been trying to avoid.

All of them kept quiet as they thought about Tony being stuck somewhere with a kid and a wizard. Who knew what condition any of them would be in after fighting whatever was in the spaceship? Who knew if any of them survived the snap?

The ex-spy sighed and apologized, "Sorry. I just… I don't know."

"I know." Rhodey said in defeat. He knew they were all exhausted, physically, mentally and emotionally. And they were angry, at everything.

After some time, Rogers asked, "Wasn't the engagement announcement made long ago? How come they still hadn't gotten married?"

Rhodey ran his hand over his face and said, "The announcement was a last minute idea, one of the spur of the moment things Tony does."

The others nodded at that. They were all aware of Tony's tendencies to do things on a whim. If he wanted it, he did it and there was no stopping him.

"Anyway, after the announcement, they decided that the wedding would not be complete without having the whole team there and you know he won't settle for a secret wedding, so he started working on getting Ross to change the Accords. He made some leeway too, some things were supposed to be presented to the U.N. in yesterday's meeting. But then we had the alien attack and well… So, yeah. That's why they didn't get married yet."

Natasha chuckled and said, "And here I thought he would get married without us." She looked at the controls display and said with a sigh, "Okay, boys, we have another two hours to reach home. Better get some shut eye now, we would have a lot of damage control waiting for us."

None of them slept but tried to get some rest. There was a lot of work to be done in the coming days.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Titan_

"I'm too old for this." Tony mumbled as he dragged the last of whatever piece of shit equipment Smurfette had wanted from the other crashed ships. He could have used the suit to help him out in easily carrying his current load plus more but he wasn't interested in seeing the suit so soon after what had happened.

"Do you want to leave sometime this decade or not?" Nebula shouted from where she was fixing something on the exterior of the blue ship. It oddly reminded Stark of one of those Wakandan jets, making him feel homesick for Earth.

He ignored the alien and continued to half drag, half carry the equipment from her ship to the Gaurdians' ship that she had called The Benatar. He felt like he had heard the name before but on Earth. Then again, the leader of the Guardians was from Earth so maybe it meant something to the guy. Tony didn't feel good taking a dead man's ship but he had no option. It was either that or stay on this damn planet.

"Don't you have a suit of armor for this sort of stuff?" Smurfette asked in annoyance as she came over and picked up the other side of the equipment to get it on the ship.

"It needs to recharge." Tony lied. The suit worked on nanotech that was embedded in his body (another thing that Pepper didn't like but something had to give, he wasn't going to let her be unprotected when around him) and the nanotech would be recharged using his body. No additional things required. The modified arc reactor that he kept on his person was where most of the nanobots were stored along with the fire power and responded to his thoughts just like any other part of his body.

The two worked in silence as they fitted all of the equipment inside the ship. According to Nebula, they were in a restricted part of the universe and the jump point (a sort of shortcut through the universe, as far as Tony could understand) would land them in a somewhat hostile part of the universe and that's why she insisted on getting guns, blasters, and all other stuff from the other ships. If there was a chance that they could either shoot or bargain their way out of situations, they were going to take it.

"How much time would it take to reach Earth?" Tony asked once again. He had been asking this question for some time and she had answered every time but now she was getting annoyed with him. He wondered if she would go all assassin on him even before they left the planet.

"I already told you this!" Nebula all but yelled.

"Humor me."

"Again? What are you, a child?"

"Possibly. Come on."

"2 cycles. In Terran speak, that would be around 4 days, give or take a day or two. That is only if we are able to access the correct jump points at the correct time."

Tony frowned in confusion as he took off his hoodie. It was getting hot with all the exertion. "What I don't get is how we managed to reach here so fast, like maybe a couple of hours but it takes days to go back?"

"The Q-ship is one of the most advanced piece of technology. The Titans were one of the most advanced race till they died. It can cover distance faster than most available vessels. So can The Benatar but not that fast. Normal ships would take maybe 7 cycles that is around 14 days for you Terrans. If Quill or Rocket, another Guardian, had been piloting right now, it would take only 1 cycle of maybe even half a cycle. They know most of the backdoors of the galaxy, especially Rocket."

"Who is Rocket?"

"A furry, little thing. An experiment by some deranged people on Halfworld. He is crazy but can kill or steal anything."

"If he is a Guardian, then why wasn't he here?" Tony enquired as he went through some of the instructions on how to fly the ship. Thankfully, there were some written in English by Quill.

Nebula eyed some food that had been left on the controls by Drax and shook her head at that. Had Gamora been on the ship, she would have never allowed Drax to leave food all over the place. She was a clean freak that way. Removing the packet, she answered, "I don't know. Both Rocket and Groot, that's a Flora Colossus – a sentient tree, an adolescent the last time I saw him – they both should have been here. The Guardians never leave each other's sides."

Stark stopped reading the instructions and looked up at her to check if she was kidding. She wasn't. There really was a sentient tree and a sentient furry thing somewhere out there. Aliens couldn't get any alien than that.

"We have everything." Nebula announced as she looked through the items they had picked up. "We should leave now. I'm driving. Go close the hatch."

Tony shrugged and went to close the hatch. There was no use of arguing about driving the spaceship. For one, she was an assassin and two, she knew the area they were going to go to.

A few minutes later they were buckled in and Nebula started the spaceship. Just as they started hovering above the ground, a bright light lit up the place in front of them. Tony knew what it was. He had been seeing it in use for so many years.

"Stop!" he yelled to Nebula as she tensed up at the increasing light.

"What is it?"

"I know that light. It's the bifrost. It's this magical dimensional bridge that Thor uses."

"I swear if it's an enemy, I'll kill you before I kill them." The cyborg said, as she kept the ship hovered over the ground.

As the light died down, it deposited two people in the center of the rune covered ground. Thor and Rocket looked around at the ruins that they were deposited in the middle of.

"Are you sure this is the correct place?" Rocket asked, looking at the destruction surrounding them.

"Looks like it." Thor pointed to the ship hovering some places behind them. "That's the ship, isn't it, Rabbit?"

"Yeah! Oh yeah! They are here!" Rocket exclaimed, waving his hands frantically at the ship.

"That's Thor."

"…and Rocket."

"Land the ship." Tony ordered as he unbuckled himself and waited till they touched ground to open the hatch.

"Point … POINT BREAK!" Tony laughed and yelled, waving to get Thor's attention.

Thor's face split into a huge smile as he saw his old friend. At least there was one good news in all of this. He waved back at his friend and moved forward to reach the ship. The two hugged and patted each other's backs and laughed their first genuine laugh after the whole ordeal.

"You are alive!" Tony exclaimed and added in mock disappointment, "And you cut your hair! Now, what am I supposed to call you?"

"Ha! You haven't changed a bit, Stark."

"Wait a minute! That's… that's not your eye is it?"

"Nope. Lost my eye, my hair and my hammer too." Thor said, lifting his new weapon to show it to Stark.

"How did you… all of that?" Tony asked in bafflement.

"Found a sister, though and lost all this because of her and then some." Thor's voice took a saddened turn at that.

"What happened to the sister?"

"Killed her and Asgard with Loki's and a fire giant's help."

Tony whistled and shook his head. "And I thought I had family issues."

"None greater than mine."

The two friends laughed and were interrupted by Rocket.

"Nebula? What are you doing here? Where's Quill and Gamora and Drax and Mantis?"

"Gamora was taken by Thanos at Knowhere and brought to the Sanctuary where I was being held prisoner. She knew the location of the Soul Stone…"

"No…" Rocket said, taking a step back. The smiles on Tony and Thor's faces evaporated immediately.

"In exchange for my life, she took him to the location and he… he killed her over there."

"No!" Rocket yelled, shaking his head vehemently. "Where are the others? Where are THEY?"

"Gone. They all… they turned to dust. I'm so… sorry." Nebula said, unable to look at the utter devastation on Rocket's face.

Rocket sat down in shock and stared at the ground. This was it. They were gone. Each and every one of them. He was alone once again. No Groot, no Quill or Gamora or Drax or even Mantis. All alone. The last Guardian and he didn't want it. If his entire family was killed then why was he still there? For what reason was he kept behind?

The little creature broke down as he kept remembering their faces, the last time they had smiled, how they hadn't wanted to split up. Maybe they shouldn't have. Then they all would have been together in the end. As they should have been.

Tears fell down unchecked as for the first time in a long time, Rocket felt utterly and truly alone. He felt someone crouch down next to him. By the color blue in his peripheral vision, he knew that Nebula had joined him and on the other side was Thor, lifting him into a hug, not saying a word, like he knew what Rocket was feeling. Like anyone could ever know what he was feeling. What he was going through. No! No one knew. No one understood.

He probably said that part out loud but he didn't care. All he could feel was the anger, anger at Thanos for taking away his family from him. He would have to die. Thanos had to die and Rocket would kill him. The raccoon didn't care how, but Thanos would pay for what he did. Rocket would make him pay.

"We all would, Rabbit." Thor said quietly. Rocket had been mumbling all this out loud in his anger. "Thanos is not going to survive this. We will make sure of it. We will find him and end him. Together!"

"Together." Rocket nodded and Nebula repeated it and patted his shoulder.

"Tony?" Thor asked, looking at his friend. "Banner said that you came here with that Strange wizard and someone called…"

"Spider-Man. Yeah." Tony said gruffly, his throat clogging up with emotions. He looked at Thor and shook his head, not wanting to say it out loud and ducked his head to wipe a stray tear.

Wordlessly, Thor stood up and went to his friend. The god put a hand on the grieving man's shoulder and said, "Let's go home. Pepper is waiting for you and so is everyone else."

Tony touched the gold band that he wore despite not having been married yet and nodded. He wanted to go home to Pepper. Immediately.

Looking at Nebula, he asked, "You are still coming to Earth? Right, Smurfette?"

"We both are. At least for now." she replied as she got up along with Rocket.

"Can you transport vessels?" Rocket asked Thor, his voice rough due to his breakdown.

Thor looked at The Benatar and said, "I can try."


	6. Chapter 6

**_CHAPTER 6_**

 _Location: Svartalfheim_

"I still cannot believe it. Queen Frigga was a Valkyrie!" Magna said as she caught up to Brunnhilde.

The group had started walking again after their short break. They had walked through half of another of the graveyard and had still no luck. Brunn tied up her hair in a bun and smiled at the enthusiastic girl.

"She was one of the best we had."

"Did you work with her? Did you know her personally?" Kari asked as he slid down the side of one of the broken ships.

"No to both of your questions. She had joined the force sometime before I had but we never worked together and soon after she had left the force to wed Odin. But even as Queen, she was the leader of the faction."

"But you have seen battle magic? What is that like?" Magna enquired as her hands glowed light blue signaling that she was searching for the skiff.

"I have and it is fascinating. Say Magna, if you are so interested in it, why hadn't you joined a class on it? Why were you attempting to teach yourself? Anyone above five centuries is allowed to enroll themselves, aren't they?"

Magna and Sol looked at each other in confusion and Sol answered, "We are not taught battle magic. It is sort of forbidden and only very few even knew how to use it and most of them were part of Queen's guard, other than Prince Loki and these two sisters that later moved on to dark arts and were banished."

Brunn thought about it and nodded. "That could be it. Odin might have stopped battle magic as a subject after Hela turned evil. Well, eviler. He might have feared that others would turn out like her."

"There are more ships this way." Royd yelled from where he had gone up ahead of them. He then disappeared to the right and the others jogged to reach him.

Now they were in yet another part of the graveyard, although this one wasn't as crowded as the previous areas that they had been to. Maybe, they would have better luck over here seeing that the ships looked to be in a much better condition than the others.

The Valkyrie looked around and pointed to a ship that was jutting out of the ground at an odd angle but looked salvageable. "Let's try that one."

The adults went inside the ship while the three children stood outside with Hax. After a few minutes, the three adults came out with a grin.

"This one's in working condition. We would need more fuel but it can probably fly." Hugi said with a smile.

"What about the communication device? Does that work?" asked Kari.

"No, but this area looks like the ships are better off so maybe one of these would have a working communication device." Royd answered as he watched Sol scale the side of another ship.

Kari saw him looking and explained, "Uh yeah, Sol is good at climbing things. She would usually climb the tallest trees possible back home." He then yelled at his sister to come down so they could move on.

As they moved on to another ship, Magna yelped and clutched her hand that was using seiðr to find the skiff.

"Don't use the spell if it hurts you." Brunn advised.

"Yes, don't use it." Kari said. "Just because my sister says there is a skiff over here doesn't mean it is actually here. Her knowledge is based on a play and we don't know how many things in that were even true. I, for one, don't think that Prince Loki would have turned into a snake and stabbed Prince Thor when they were eight or turned Prince Thor into a frog when they were twelve."

"Oh, those two are actually true. Thor told me about them and Loki confirmed it." Brunn said remembering the few hours before they had been ambushed. The four of them, Brunn, Thor, Bruce and Loki (reluctantly and because they were in Thor and Loki's room and he had nowhere else to go), had been sitting and getting drunk which ended up in Bruce passing out and Thor telling childhood stories to Brunn while Loki was casually drinking and reading a book that he had apparently gotten from his personal library on Asgard. Who even had time to pick up a book during Ragnarok?

"Wow." Kari muttered under his breath.

"There is a skiff here." Hugi confirmed and explained. "I knew a cousin of Lord Fandral. Fandral the Dashing was a good friend of the princes and part of King Thor's personal guard. He had a panache for storytelling and had once let it slip to his cousin that the brothers had left in a skiff that he helped them acquire."

"Does this skiff look anything like a silvery boat thing with a weird handle at the back and bird type wings?" Hax asked from where he was standing on top of a broken Dark Elves' ship.

"Yeah, something like that."

"Then I found it. It's over there." He pointed to beyond the ships.

"Ha! I told you there would be a skiff here" Sol shouted, punching the air in victory. Looking at her brother she said, "Naysayer" and then ran off to where Hax had pointed.

"Sol, wait!" Brunn said, taking off after the girl.

"What did I do?" asked Kari, spreading his hands in confusion.

"Come on! This is just getting exciting." Magna said as she too took off.

Brunnhilde stopped short as she approached the skiff. Even after being covered in dust and having really brutal scratches on its side, it looked magnificent sitting in the middle of those horrible Dark Elves' ships. She touched the side of the skiff and traced the embedded pattern of Gungnir. This was a royal skiff. She hadn't seen these in a really, really long time.

"Woah! I have never seen a royal skiff!" came Kari's excited voice from behind her.

"Yes, we always used the public transport skiffs. This looks so much different than those." Magna said.

"That's because it is both a transport vehicle and a battle ship." Brunn answered as she jumped aboard and joined Sol and Royd, who were already going through the contents.

"There is a blanket here for some reason." Sol said, picking up a dusty blanket.

"Keep it. We might need it." Magna suggested as she watched in excitement her seiðr reacting to the skiff's embedded seiðr.

"Come on. Please be in working condition." Brunn muttered as she passed her hand over the hidden control panel at the back. It took some time, but recognizing the Asgardian energy signal, the control panel opened up.

"What are you doing?" Royd asked.

Brunn bent down and tapped at some things before replying, "This is a royal skiff and usually they can communicate with each other using that," she pointed to a round object attached to the left side, "but being royal skiffs, they can also communicate with any other Realm as long as the emergency signal is switched on. It's usually done when we take a skiff out of Asgard but it looks like Thor and Loki didn't turn it on when they left Asgard."

She pulled out a detached sort of keyboard and typed something on it. "Now, usually to do something like this, you would need the passkey of an active, on duty Einherjar or the overriding passkey of the royal family."

"We have neither." Hugi pointed out as he sat down next to where the Valkyrie was sitting.

"Nope. But you have a Valkyrie and the leader of them at that and if I know Odin and I do, he would not have thought to change the overriding controls to remove the lead Valkyrie passkey. And so, all I have to do," Brunn smiled at the keyboard and typed in her passkey, "is type in my passkey. Being the leader of the Valkyries, my passkey can only be surpassed by one of the royal family members."

As the control lights turned on, first green and then changed to red with the Valkyrie seal shining in the middle, Brunn laughed and exclaimed, "Ha! Of course he didn't change it. Good, old, predictable Odin Borson!"

"Now what happens?" Magna asked in wonderment.

"Now we wait till the whole area turns red. It's gonna take some time because the skiff is old and banged up and out of commission for some time but it still has seiðr in it and also some fuel, so we can use it go back to entrance of the graveyard in the meantime."

By the time Brunn had driven the skiff back to the entrance marked by the crates they had collected earlier on, the entire inner sides of the skiff had turned pale red with the seal of Valkyries in the middle.

"The seal in the center shows as to whose passkey was used and basically who is outside of Asgard. In this condition, we can be traced by the authorized people, usually Vanaheim or Alfheim and we can establish contact with them." Brunn explained to the children as they watched the others bring the crates on board. "Hugi, take us back to cave. I'll work on establishing connection with anyone out there."

Brunn ignored the happy exclamations of the people on seeing the skiff as she sat and worked on getting a stable connection. She hadn't done this in a really long time and had forgotten most of the stuff and was working only on muscle memory and sheer luck. It must have been an hour or so later when she finally was able to tap into the frequency that connected the Nine Realms.

"Politically speaking," she asked the now calm crowd, "who has been the biggest supporter of Asgard in the past few years?"

"Vanaheim and Alfheim" replied a woman from the back of the cave, "in that order."

"Kari, all yours." Brunn handed over the keyboard to Kari and settled back to watch the boy work. "Send message to only those two. There would be other places who would want to take advantage of the situation. Tell them not to spread word of this."

"Got it." Kari muttered, his attention now on sending a message across. Looking up, he said loudly, "Can everyone just stop looking at me? You are making me nervous."

Brunnhilde laughed and patted his shoulder as everyone went back to what they were doing. "No pressure, kid."

The boy rolled his eyes and connected himself into the Nine Realms Channel. "Do these things have a broadcaster or something? They can listen in to the Nine Realms Channel while I work. That way they won't try to not stare at me."

"Yeah, just a minute." Brunn said, tapping the round object behind her twice before taking her finger up across it to increase the volume. "What is a Nine Realms Channel, anyway?"

"Basically, news broadcasting over the Nine Realms about the happenings in each Realm, except this rock and Midgard. They started it about five centuries ago on a moon of Vanaheim. That was what my job was supposed to be – to listen in to the channel and report any news affecting Asgard to my superior. I know, not a great job, but I was planning to someday be in charge of the entire communication process. Well, that's not going to happen now."

Brunn looked at the boy and then at the crowd. For her, the fight against Hela had been a revenge action, the destruction of Asgard, a sad but not a big deal. She was used to not staying on Asgard. But these people were not. They had left behind everything, their homes, families, everything to save their lives. For them, it truly felt like the end of all things.

Patting Kari's shoulder, the warrior said, "Maybe wherever we set up shop, you can be the communications in charge."

"Maybe."

For some time they all listened to the channel – the destruction of Asgard, the normal fights erupting in Jotunheim between the different tribes, how Vanaheim was going to flourish under King Freyr's rule, how Alfheim was coping with their king's death … wait, what?

"What was that? Did they say King Bolverk of Alfheim is dead?"

"Princess Draupnir is the Queen? Wasn't she the youngest?"

"Mass funeral for those lost to mysterious dust all across the Realms?"

Brunnhilde whistled loudly and told everyone to shut up and listen properly to what was happening. She wondered if they been on this dead planet for only a day or more than that. What even had happened in that short time?

"Shh… they are saying something about a blown up ship." Someone yelled above the chatter of the crowd.

"…now identified as Asgardians. Earlier, we had reported that the Realm Eternal had faced Ragnarok and it had been rumored that a few had escaped along with the now King Thor and hitherto presumed dead, Prince Loki. This was based on the predictions of the famous Vanir völva, Helga. A spaceship transporting goods from Alfheim to Jotunheim, however came across a giant spaceship having been blown to pieces. It is reported that hundreds of passengers aboard the ship have been found dead. There have been no reported survivors."

"No!" came the cry from somewhere in the crowd. Many shed tears for their loved ones left behind on the Statesman while others grieved for losing even that portion of Asgard.

"Did you find the bodies of Thor or Loki or Heimdall or Bruce? Come on!" Brunn growled.

The report continued, "Vanaheim's benevolent King Freyr has ordered for the bodies found to be brought back to Vanaheim to conduct a proper Asgardian funeral in a day's time. The retrieving crew is yet to find any signs of King Thor or Prince Loki in the wreckage. There might still be hope of their survival."

"They escaped! They must have!"

"Quiet!"

"…now being reported that some of the escape pods of the spaceship have been found missing. We hope to the Norns that some of the Asgardians have escaped this brutal ordeal…"

"The message is ready, Brunn." Kari said, showing the message to the Valkyrie.

"Yeah, that's good enough. Send it across."

"Done but it will take some time, maybe even a day or two to reach the other Realms. We are really out of range over here and this system connection has not been updated in years."

"It's better than nothing. Now what is this about people turning to dust?" Brunn said, listening to the next news piece that was now being reported on.

"I don't know, but something horrible is going down out there." Eda said.

"Worse than Ragnarok?" Sol asked apprehensively.

"There's always something worse" said Brunn, "Always."

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Avengers Facility, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

Clint wriggled and turned sides to get more comfortable on his bed. He paused his movements as he felt Laura almost wake up. When she didn't actually wake up, Clint gave up on trying to get comfortable. He was as comfortable as one could hope to be in a massive bed with a soft mattress and even softer sheets and duvet. What kept him awake despite all the comforts was the fate of his friends. When he had talked to Natasha earlier in the day, they hadn't talked about who all in their friends was no longer with them. It was something that should be conveyed face to face and so now Clint waited anxiously for the Avengers to return from Wakanda. He knew that Pepper too didn't know of their friends' conditions as Rhodey too had felt the same.

Quietly getting up from his bed, the archer first checked up on his wife. She was still asleep. Good. Next stop: children's bedroom. Clint slowly opened the door to his kids' bedroom. It was a spacious room meant for three young kids. Clint remembered fondly how he had had to convince Tony that the children wouldn't mind sharing the bedroom. The billionaire had been preparing to go all out for his 'smaller agents'.

Clint left the room after leaving a note for Laura to find in case she woke up and he wasn't there. He walked down the hallway, passing Natasha's room on his right and Steve's room that was further down the hallway. Tony hadn't changed anything, the spy noticed. The Captain America shield stickers that Clint had once put up long ago, still existed and so did the Disney princess stickers that Tony had stuck as a joke on Nat's room door. Even the insides of Nat's room still looked the same as they always had. They had even been cleaned recently, either in preparation of the Avengers returning or maybe they were cleaned every day.

The archer walked quietly around the building that was his house for majority of the time except for the last few years. He sometimes wished that if there was a way to travel in time, he would make sure that the Accords never came up. He knew that they had not been the only reason for the wedge between the friends but they had been a starting point and they had been the reason why his friends were fugitives, why he had been on house arrest for so long and the reason why his family's existence was now as good as public knowledge. He still didn't know whether he wanted to be in the same house as Tony (whenever he may return and he would… he always did) but if the Avengers were to regroup once again, then it was only right that they did so in their home.

So lost in thoughts he had been that he almost crashed into the chair in front of him. He had as usual reached the kitchen where he usually spent his sleepless nights.

"Hey." Pepper said as she looked up from the cup of coffee that she had been staring into for quite some time.

"Oh hey." Clint greeted back. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Don't want to. And yeah, can't."

"Chinese?" Clint asked, taking out the leftover food from earlier and heating it.

"No thanks. Can't keep anything down either. That's why, coffee." She said, lifting the cup. "Got a message from Rhodey some time back. They'll be here in about 45 minutes and so will Scott with his daughter and Jim, his ex-wife's fiancé. She is gone and so is Scott's girlfriend, who it turns out was another superhero and her family, ex-superheroes."

"Dammit!" Clint exclaimed in anger, hitting his hand against the island. "Where did this come out of, all of a sudden?!"

"You can join May and Happy in the living room if you want. She is watching some reruns. She too doesn't want to sleep. He probably slept long ago." Pepper said in monotone.

She was too tired. This was exactly why she had asked Tony to leave all this behind. The waiting, the tension, the danger to life, it was all too much. For both of them. He may have gotten the shrapnel taken out of his heart but he still had a heart condition after all that trauma. He wasn't supposed to even take stress but did he ever listen to anyone other than himself?

"Nah. I'll stay here." Clint said, sitting down opposite to Pepper. "If you don't mind me asking, why a kid is even involved in all this?" he asked, referring to Spider-Man. Pepper hadn't told him anything beyond that the woman was May, Spider-Man's aunt. No last name, nothing. The superhero, it turns out was only a high schooler and Tony was protecting his identity.

"He wouldn't take no for an answer. Tony tried to keep him away from all the mess after the confrontation at the airport but the kid continued to be Spider-Man and when Tony took away his suit, he actually put on his hoodie and fought some guy with alien tech who was trying to steal Avengers' stuff."

"Oh yeah. I saw that on the news. In his hoodie? Seriously?"

"Yeah. Tony was furious and impressed but still furious. He decided it was better if the kid had the suit. More protection that way."

Clint snorted and said, "I'd love to meet this kid."

"You'll have fun with him. Everyone does, even Happy, and he doesn't like unknown people near Tony." Pepper looked at her phone as she said that, sounding distracted.

"Waiting for a call?" Clint asked, pointing to the phone with his chopsticks.

"Yeah. Scott was supposed to reply to a message." The phone chimed and whatever the message was, calmed the distraught CEO down.

"Hi. Am I disturbing?" May asked from the threshold of the kitchen.

"Not at all. Come on in. Coffee?"

"Sure."

The three sat in silence, lost in their own thoughts for the next half an hour till F.R.I.D.A.Y. informed them that the two jets were nearing the Compound.

"Are the cars still there?" Clint asked Pepper.

"Only one of them. The rep, Justin, left long ago. The other car is probably here for surveillance or something."

"Boss, the Avengers have returned from Wakanda. They have landed on the far left side and I have set the Quinjet's course to land next to them."

"Thanks F.R.I.D.A.Y."

X-X-X

The first thing Steve did when he got off the DAV was inhale the slightly cold air that had been stirred up by the DAV's arrival. He couldn't stop the tiny smile that tugged at the corner of his lips as he realized that he was home and hopefully for good.

"Home sweet home." Bruce said in relief as he walked around a bit.

"Bruce? That you, buddy?" asked Clint in surprise as he entered the landing pad area. He had ran out of the kitchen when he had heard of their arrival. He knew Pepper was somewhere behind him (he could hear the running footsteps) and May had gone to wake Happy up, who had wanted to be there when the Avengers returned.

"Hey Clint! So good to see you, man." Bruce greeted with a smile and the two friends hugged.

"Clint." Natasha said as she got off the vehicle and looked at her best friend with relief. For the first time since the battle had ended, she felt herself relax a bit. Nothing was alright in the world but her best friend was still there and that was more than enough.

Pepper entered the landing pad area to witness hugs being exchanged. She too, joined in to meet her friends. The slight sound of air being rustled around them, alerted the group to the arrival of the Quinjet.

Ignoring the approaching jet, Clint asked in apprehension, "That's it? This is? This is … it?"

No one said a thing as the jet landed and Clint and Pepper teared up at finding out just how many of their friends had actually survived. Natasha held on to Clint while Rhodey pulled Pepper in a tight hug.

"Hey guys."

The others looked up to see the new arrivals. Scott was standing in front of them with a tired smile on his face and his eyes red with both tiredness and the slight breakdown he had had in the Quinjet's rest room. He was holding his sleeping daughter in his arms, her head tucked under his chin. Behind him stood a guy with short, brown hair and a tired and defeated look in his eyes.

"Hi." Steve said softly so as not to wake up the little girl. Turning to the other man, he said, "And you must be Jim."

"Yeah. Hi."

"Hey, Scott, Jim. How are you guys doing?" Pepper asked, moving towards them and stopped near Cassie's sleeping form. "How is she?"

"Confused but she hasn't understood what is going on just yet." Scott replied. "Nor have I. What happened actually?"

"We'll explain everything inside. Let's go." Natasha said.

Scott turned to Pepper and said, "I stopped at Tennessee just like you asked."

"What's over there?" asked Steve.

"Where are they?"

"Inside. They slept on the way. Must have been pretty tired. I didn't want to wake them up. You wanna…?"

"Yeah, I'll go and do that." With that Pepper stepped inside the Quinjet.

"What are you talking about? Who is in Tennessee?" Clint asked.

"Some kids." Scott replied. "Apparently Stark and Pepper know them and they called up Pepper saying that their mom disappeared and then she called me to stop in Tennessee and pick them up. Otherwise, we were supposed to arrive before these guys."

Soon, Pepper walked out of the Quinjet, followed by a golden-brown haired teenaged boy and a pre-teen brunette girl, who had to be his sister. The two kids looked tired and their eyes were red rimmed and puffed, but the boy was on alert and standing close enough to protect his sister if the need arose. The Avengers' hearts went out to the siblings and the enormity of what had just transpired hit them hard once again, now that they saw someone other than themselves being affected by the result of the snap.

"Guys, this is Harley and Joanna Keener. They'll be staying with us." Pepper said, introducing the kids. Seeing Jo stifle a yawn, she led them inside.

After sending the kids to sleep in a room next to Tony and Pepper's room, Pepper joined the remaining Avengers in the Avengers' common area. A few minutes later Scott and Jim walked in, having taken Cassie to Scott's room and Pepper instructed F.R.I.D.A.Y. to keep an eye on the kids.

"Ok, now can someone explain what's going on?" Scott asked as soon as they all had settled down with either coffee or something stronger. Mostly something stronger.

"Hey guys!" Happy said, walking in with May. "I was just wondering where all of you were."

Pepper shifted to let May sit down next to her. "You all remember Spider-Man?" At everyone's nod, she said, "This is his aunt, May. Unless Spider-Man himself or Tony want to reveal his identity, that's all you all are allowed to know."

"Okay." Natasha nodded and then went into as detailed an explanation as she could, about all the things that had happened so far.

"Thor probably has a slightly more detailed explanation of all this. But yeah, that's what happened." Bruce added as Natasha finished explaining everything. Even after having lived it and then explained it twice, she still wasn't able to digest the reality.

Clint's voice cracked with emotion as he said, "So, Wanda… and, and Vision… Sam and Bucky… they all… they all are just…"

"Gone." Steve said in monotone, gulping his drink down in a go and wishing not for the first time that he could get drunk.

May's breath hitched as she tried to not cry out loudly. "He is just a kid." She whispered. "He's just a kid for fuck's sake! And he is out there fighting… fighting aliens… oh god, oh god, oh god…"

"May…" Pepper put her arm around the brunette and offered as much comfort as she could.

Clint gripped tightly on to the glass in his hand and blinked his eyes so as to not tear up. His friends… Wanda, who was like a little sister… they were all gone. And there was nothing he could do. Nothing at all. Just gone. Just like that.

"Where's Thor? And the talking animal that you were talking about?" Clint asked, trying to change the topic. Trying to get his mind off the oppressing news that he had just heard.

"Space," replied Bruce. "To find the remaining Guardians who had rescued him and also find Tony, Doctor Strange and Spider-Man. The little guy, Rocket, he made a sort of homing device from Tony's tech on the War Machine suit and said that he could use that to find them or something like that."

"Shouldn't they be back by now?" Pepper asked in worry.

"Ideally, yes." Natasha said. "But Thor wasn't sure how much of the Rainbow Bridge he could summon and use continuously and how long it would take them to find the others. They could be anywhere out there, which is why Rocket made a homing device and all and he already had some sort of homing device for his ship."

They sat in silence for quite some time till Steve asked Pepper, "What's this about the U.N. people? Rhodey said that…"

"Hmm yeah." Pepper replied and instructed the A.I. to display a holographic image of the representative's file. "This guy, Justin, he wanted to talk to whoever is in charge."

"I'll talk to him." Rhodey said as he looked over the information on the guy. "You guys are still fugitives, I think. F.R.I.D.A.Y.?"

"Yes, Steve and his team are yet to be declared free of all charges."

"We don't want to take a risk in such a situation. I'll handle them. It could be a ploy to get you in the open. Ross is enough of a bastard to use this situation to do something like that."

Bruce nodded and then asked, "What about Fury? Can he be of some help to us? I mean, even though he doesn't run S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore, he still has power or pull or something, right?"

Pepper and Clint looked at each other and Clint said, "That was what I had suggested when I came here. We called him up but nothing. So, F.R.I.D.A.Y. ran a facial scan all over and one of the traffic cams caught him and Maria Hill… well…"

"Fury and Hill too?" Natasha asked in shock.

"Yeah."

Jim sighed in disbelief and said, "I can't believe there are actual stones out there that can wipe out life. I feel like I'm in a sci-fi or something."

"Welcome to our life." Bruce said, staring at the coffee table in front of him.

"Aargh!" Scott groaned and doubled over, clutching his head.

"What's wrong?" Steve asked in worry.

Scott straightened with a grimace and explained, "I was in Quantum Realm for…" he cleared his throat, "for some time and that's not supposed to happen. It was supposed to be in and out so the suit I was wearing was not meant for the purpose." Rubbing his temples, he continued, "It messes with your head, the Quantum Realm and you keep shrinking forever, which messes up the body. The last time something like this happened, I used to get hallucinations or messed up messages from Janet Pym. She was also stuck there till three weeks ago when we got her out. Around that time, I grew big, but bigger than the time you guys saw me at the airport, so that knocked me out and I almost drowned and died. I was in water that time. Don't ask why. Anyway, unnatural stuff… wasn't supposed to happen and now I feel like someone's hitting my head with a hammer."

"I didn't understand most of that but you are tired…" Steve said, "So is everyone else. Let's just go and at least lie down."

As the Avengers slowly got up, their trusted A.I. assured them that she would alert them if something happened. Happy took May to the room that was designed for Peter.

"Pepper, coming?" Natasha asked the strawberry blond sitting on the couch where Tony usually sat.

"I'll… I'll just stay here." Pepper said, her voice cracking with emotion as she twisted her engagement ring once again.

"I'll stay with you." The spy said and motioned others to carry on. She didn't want to leave her friend alone in such a situation.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Resting Area, Bottom of the Universe_

Loki's mind was reeling with questions as he followed Eternity out of the room. He let his seiðr take over and cover him in his usual black-green garb sans the headgear (that would be just too much). Now, that felt much better than the stupid robe he had been in before. He felt more in control and confident, though he was no closer to finding out the answers to anything.

"Eternity? As in… the cosmic being?" Loki asked as he rubbed the palm of his left hand with his right in an old, comforting gesture of nervousness.

"Yes, the one and only."

"The creator of Infinity Stones?"

" _One_ of the creators." Finney pointed out.

"Right." Loki said as he finally remembered the story that the Collector had told him.

The stones had been created by the four Cosmic Entities: Eternity, the timeless embodiment of the universe and its reality; Infinity, the embodiment of the entire space; Entropy, the destroyer and Death, well, that wasn't too hard to guess. What Loki never understood entirely was why they would need some stones to carry out the same powers as they did. He remembered having trying to read up on them during his time as Odin. The late All-father had access to the most exquisite books in existence. And so had the Grandmaster, although it had taken Loki almost an entire day to find his personal library and then even longer to gain access to it. But in the end, he had found a couple of books that had mentioned the four beings. From the little tidbits, the god had created an understanding that the stones more or less carried the powers of the Entities. Eternity had control over all of time and reality, Infinity over all of space, Entropy being the destroyer would have control over any sort of power and minds of others to carry out the destruction for him and Death had control over the souls and apparently a bit over the other areas too.

So, why did they create the stones? And why they didn't try to stop Thanos from taking control over the stones? And what did they want from him? He had too many questions and no answers.

He watched as Eternity slipped back into his corporeal form as they walked towards the room in the far corner of the hallway. He looked at the other person who had interrupted them and knew that she too carried the same sort of power that the other one did. She too, must be one of them. _Infinity_ , his mind supplied and he agreed with himself. She did radiate a power close to that of the Tesseract and he did have a very close relationship with that particular stone. He could always recognize that power without even consciously trying to.

"Did you send for the others?" Eternity asked Infinity, jarring Loki out of his thoughts. His life was getting too weird… even for him.

"I thought we could get them involved later. Shouldn't he be explained everything first?"

"Might as well do it now. I don't want to explain everything twice."

"You just want the additional drama."

Eternity shrugged as his sister flagged down one of the staff and asked to get the others from below.

Loki ran his hand over his hair and made sure that the usual glamour was in place that slicked his hair back. Running a check all over him and his surroundings, he tried to get a semblance of control back. If he was going to meet some cosmic entities, he needed his wits and intelligence with him.

Loki entered the room behind the door that read, 'Recreational Room'. The room was huge, triple the size of his room back on Asgard at least. It was brightly lit and had couches and chairs littered all around. One side of the room was covered in games, some of which he had come across in Sakaar and another side contained a bar. Two of the walls were completely glass, showing the outer space, which really made Loki uncomfortable. As much as he liked the space, the feeling of falling through the void was now forever in his mind and he could no longer enjoy the vastness as he had once done.

The god of mischief immediately spotted The Collector sitting on a chair and reading some sort of catalogue and the Grandmaster, sipping on a neon green drink and staring intently at a board game in front of him, which Loki recognized as the Diem Galaxy – Sector D-32 version of _Hnefatafl_ , a game that he was well versed in. There were two others, sitting near the bar and making themselves a drink. They were not familiar to the god but he knew their energy signals now. Those two must be Death and Entropy. Death reminded him of Hela, but less unhinged and when she looked at him, he felt like he was running on borrowed time. Of course he was, he thought to himself. If he had died, maybe he went to her and not to Valhalla or Helheim and now she was annoyed that he wasn't dead anymore. He tried to think of where exactly jötnar went after dying. He really should have read up on the books his mother used to give him. Actually, he should have just done whatever his mother had asked of him. He would have been in a much better situation than he was in right now.

"Ah, Loki!" the Grandmaster exclaimed as if greeting an old friend and the god wondered whether he was in trouble for aiding a revolution against the Elder. The Elder patted the place next to him and said, "Come, sit next to me. Play a game with me. I'm bored."

"You are always bored." The Collector said, flipping a page and marking something, probably yet another thing that he just needed to have.

"Well, I don't have my Contest of Champions anymore to entertain me."

Loki wisely kept quiet as he listened to the brothers bicker. He would be safer that way. He had just gotten his life back, he wasn't going to lose it to some eccentric Elder with a panache for any sort of games.

"You told me you were bored of it."

"I was, but that was before my latest champion. What was his name, Loki? You knew him, right?"

"Uh… Hulk."

"That's right. The Hulk. Ah, he was such fun. Always good entertainment. Ah, that cursed Lord of Thunder…"

"God." Loki corrected under his breath as he followed the two cosmic beings further into the room and went to sit near (not next to, he wasn't that crazy) the Grandmaster. He _had_ been asked to do just that and he was far more comfortable with the eccentric ex-ruler of Sakaar than he was with anyone else.

"…seduced him away from me."

"No one would need to be seduced away from you. They would gladly leave." Tivan said off handedly.

"I think you are talking about yourself. Isn't that right, Loki?"

"Hmm?"

"Right. Enough you two." Finney said, putting an end to the bickering. "We should just get this started."

"There's still time. We can always not do this." Entropy said with a sigh.

"We are doing it."

"Worth a try." Trop said with a shrug.

"Here, have a drink." Grandmaster said, handing Loki a dark red drink.

"Thank you. If you don't mind me asking Grandmaster, you seem a bit different…"

"Ah yes, yes. I don't feel the same. It's time for a change, don't you think?"

"Mhm." Loki hummed with a polite smile as En Dwi continued talking about how he was planning to change. Loki still was trying to figure out what the others could want from him. He wasn't here just for entertainment… there had to be something else going on.

"Mmm… maybe I should go to a new planet. Sakaar was getting a bit boring. Loki, suggest a planet for me to visit."

"Last time you decided to visit a planet, you stayed there for a millennia. I don't think you understand the meaning of 'visit'." Death commented.

Ignoring the cosmic entity, he continued, "I just need to have a change in pace of things. It had been getting so, so, so… what's that word starting with 'm'?"

"Marvelous?"

"No."

"My brother is an idiot."

"No… that's not a word, Tivan!"

"Mundane? Monotonous?" Loki suggested.

"Yes. Those ones." The Grandmaster said excitedly. "Mundane! That was what it was getting. Too boring. I had to do the same things everyday – get up, kill a few people, intimidate a few others, pay off Scrappers, preside over the Contest and attend parties."

"You mean, orgies." Infinity supplied.

"Same thing." En Dwi said dismissively.

"It's really not."

"Anyway, it was boring. The Revolution…" Loki maintained a calm look as he wondered whether the erratic ruler would rapidly change from jovial to murderous. "…now that was a nice touch. A bit inconvenient, but nice. Well, not for Topaz… she died, but it was fun for me. I expected it from the minute I spoke to Lord of Thunder. But you…" Loki barely restrained himself from cringing. "…you surprised me. I'm impressed. Really. I am. It was wonderful. I didn't think you had it in you. I expected you to try and kill me or get me to do something for you, but leading a revolution and stealing the Statesman? That was brilliant. Wasn't it brilliant, Taneleer?"

"I wasn't there."

"But I told you all about it. You never listen to me."

"You are the least interesting thing in the universe."

"Excuse me? I am very interesting, thank you very much."

"You are right. This is like listening to children fight." Trop said to Eternity.

"Okay. You both are interesting. Can we get down to business? Now!" Infinity ordered.

"Right." Ter said and addressed Loki, "You had asked as to why you were alive."

Loki nodded and hoped that he wouldn't get any roundabout answers.

"Well, because we have some work for you."

"What sort of work?" Loki kept his tone interested as he ran scenarios in his head about how he would fare in such a situation. Nothing seemed good.

"You are aware of the Infinity Stones, right? Because if you are not, this is a waste of time." Trop said.

"Yes, I am aware of them."

"We want them back."

"And you are going to get them back for us."

"You might need some additional help. Finney, where are the others?"

Finney pointed to the door that swung open just then and said, "Right here."

Ter nodded the others to come in and said to Loki, "I assume you know them."

Loki was staring at the new entrants and wondered whether this was some sort of a joke. None of them could ever help him, not that they would want to in the first place. Well, except one, but then he had always been understanding of him, to the point of irritation. Standing at the door, staring at him, were his former friends and the royal pain in his ass and also traitors to everyone except his perfect older brother, but he had kind of always expected that. The warriors three looked kind of surprised to see him there, Sif looked plain annoyed and Heimdall looked almost… relieved?

"They can't help me." Loki said stoically and finished his drink, which the Grandmaster immediately refilled with some pink liquid which Loki knew from experience was pretty strong.

"You are alive." Sif said in annoyance.

"It would seem so." Loki replied smugly and asked, "How was Ria? I assume everything was perfect for the Ambassador of Asgard. Hmm?"

Sif narrowed her eyes and then launched herself at him as understanding dawned on her. She was held back by Heimdall. "You! You filthy, good for nothing trickster! You sent me to Ria, knowing that they always held a grudge against me for the Zaja Skirmish. Heimdall, unhand me!"

Loki shrugged as he looked at her in amusement. "Oh, pfft, that was so long ago. I knew they wouldn't hurt the Ambassador that _Odin_ himself sent."

"But you also knew that they wouldn't easily let me go either. No, I would not return to Asgard alive if I tried to leave that planet."

"Hmm… at least you didn't have to fight my sister. Your friends there died because of her."

"At least Hogun got to fight against her." Volstagg sighed.

"I would rather have died." Sif spat at Loki.

"That can be arranged." Looking at an entertained Ter, he asked, "Why exactly are they alive? They can't help me in, well, anything."

Finney sat down on Loki's couch and asked, "Do you know which stone would contain my power?"

"Mhmm."

"Then you know that there is always a reason. Just like the stone guided you, I guide them." She nodded at the other cosmic beings.

Loki sipped his drink and thought about how the Space Stone had always shown him what was to be done. It never gave him a reason but it showed him a few things that he didn't know he needed to do. It hopefully never misguided him. The god thought about the last thing the stone ever told him – sacrifice. And he had done so. Sacrificed himself for his brother and consequently, the plan he had been making with the help of the stone. He just hoped Thor didn't go and do something stupid that would make Loki's sacrifice worth nothing.

"Well, sit down." Finney said to the new comers, knowing that Loki would now at least listen them out.

"I'm not going to help him in anything." Sif grumbled as she sat down with her friends, opposite Loki while Heimdall sat on the couch next to Loki and nodded at him cordially which Loki returned stiffly.

"If I may," Fandrall said, "what exactly do we have to help Loki in? And what are the stones that you were talking of?"

"The Infinity Stones." Loki replied.

"Thor talked of them once before he left Asgard. But he never explained anything about it." Hogun said.

"Where is Thor?" Volstagg asked.

"Midgard, I hope. He was supposed to go there." Loki replied, looking at Infinity for confirmation.

"He is currently travelling."

Travelling? Loki thought about that and looked at Heimdall. Well, with him dead, Thor would have no way to get to Midgard. He would have to use some other means to reach the planet. Loki hoped that Thor would reach the planet before Thanos did. It was very important that he did.

"What are the stones?" Sif asked.

"Allow me to explain." The Collector said, keeping the catalogue aside and started his usual explanation complete with holograms.

"Is that really necessary?" Death asked as she and Trop joined everyone on the couches.

"I don't like that. It shows my bad side." Trop said as he pointed to the hologram image of the Temple Vault of Morag.

"None of us do." Infinity said.

"So, these stones are powerful objects that can … do what exactly?" Sif asked.

"Anything, depending on the person having them at the moment." Eternity explained.

"They can manipulate whatever aspect they represent." Loki said. "Remember the Tesseract? That was the space stone. And the Aether that infected Thor's lady? That was the Reality Stone, which I had asked you all to give to the Collector, here."

"We have an Infinity Stone in the vaults of Asgard?" Fandral asked in shock.

"You were disguised as Odin? What happened to All-father?" Hogun asked.

"We had." Loki said, ignoring Hogun and addressed Heimdall, "Do they not know of…?"

"I just met them before we came in here. I did not have time to inform them."

"Inform what? What happened?" Volstagg asked.

"Ragnarok." Loki replied.

"WHAT?" the four warriors shouted in surprise.

"Ugh! You make so much noise." The Grandmaster complained, rubbing his ears.

Loki and Heimdall explained about everything that had happened since Thor and Loki went to find Odin on Midgard and the warriors became somber as they heard about what had happened to their home. In return, they told the two about how the Warriors Three had found themselves in this establishment after being killed by Hela and how Sif had appeared some time back.

"So, you died." Loki said to Sif.

"No, I did not. On the contrary, I was getting ready for dinner when I was brought here."

"We'll explain that bit later." Death said to Loki before he could ask any questions.

"Our families? Do either of you know what happened to them?" Volstagg asked.

"Both of your children were safe aboard the spaceship and later they were amongst those who had escaped via the escape pods." Heimdall said. "I did not find anyone else's family members either on Asgard or afterwards. I am sorry."

"Thank you, good Heimdall." Volstagg said gruffly as he wondered what had happened to his wife.

After saying the prayer for not only their loved ones but also for Asgard, Fandral asked, "So, umm, during Rag…Ragnarok, the stone in the vault would have been destroyed, then. That's one less stone."

"Do you think we can be destroyed?" Entropy asked in amusement. "The stones are only an extension of us and nothing can destroy them, except their own individual power."

"To answer your question Fandral," Loki addressed his ex-friend, "the stone was never destroyed. Not even Ragnarok could destroy it, however the outer casing of the stone that we called Tesseract, could be destroyed with the destruction of Asgard and the stone would only be floating in space for all to see. That was why while raising Surtur, I took the stone with me. But unfortunately, that drew the Mad Titan to us, when he was on route to Midgard and he took the stone from me."

"This… Mad Titan… why does he want the stones? What will he gain from it?" Hogun asked.

"Other than complete control over the laws of the Universe?" Loki asked sarcastically.

"Yes."

"He can do whatever he wants." Loki said with a shrug. "However, his objective is to kill half the population of the entire universe. His own planet had been destroyed by over population and he thinks himself to be benevolent to aid all the other planets by doing such a deed."

"Well, if he does get that much power then why does he not just create more habitable planets for all the population to live comfortably on?" Volstagg asked.

"Well, he is called the Mad Titan, not the Genius Titan." Loki said.

"How do you know him?" Sif asked. "The way you talk of him, Loki, it seems to me that you know him."

Loki gritted his teeth together and said scathingly, "I do know him. I worked with him."

"Of course you did."

Loki tried to reign in his anger at that flippant reply. He should be used to it, he thought to himself. No one ever questioned why or how he could do something like that. No. They always assumed that he did it because he was meant to do it. No one ever, including his own adoptive family, ever thought to ask him of his intentions or his reasons for doing anything. They all were always ready to believe the worst of him and question his good intentions. And then they wondered why he hated them so.

"So, how many stones does he have then?" Fandral asked Loki as if the god would know such a thing.

"Three." Loki gritted out. "The last time I came across him, he already had the Power Stone with him and had destroyed the whole of Xandar to obtain it and then he took the Space Stone from me. Seeing that the Collector is here, I can only presume that he also has the Reality Stone with him, unless the stone is here on his person, which I cannot sense. The Mind Stone and Time Stone are on Midgard, which I assume would be his next target as no one knows the location of the Soul Stone."

"Actually," Eternity said, "Thanos now has all the stones and has already completed his objective. Which is exactly why, we want you to go and get the stones back from him."

"That's not possible." Loki said, his throat suddenly dry with apprehension. "He would need to go against the Avengers seeing that two of the Stones were on Midgard. I have a plan for when such a thing would happen…"

"Well, if you had a plan, it didn't work. Not surprising since you died before any of this happened." Death said.

No, this was not happening, Loki thought to himself. His plan was foolproof. Well, not foolproof since he came up with it when he was under the Mind Stone's influence and in contact with the Tesseract but it was a plan and it had a very high chance of actually working. How could it have failed? How?

Thor! Maybe it failed because of that. Thor was still travelling, which meant he was yet to reach Midgard. Maybe the lack of extra firepower was what failed the plan. Thankfully, that also meant that Thor had survived the Thanos' plan of killing half the universe.

Heimdall cleared his throat and asked, "Do you mean to say that half the population of the universe is gone?"

"Yes." Death answered sourly.

Loki stared into his drink and spoke, "There was another rumor. The guards used to speak of it. That Thanos had wanted to impress Lady Death by achieving such a feat." He looked up at Death.

Death raised a brow and addressed Loki, "I would have been impressed if he had killed each person in any way other than using the Infinity Stones."

Loki looked confused at that and she continued, "You use magic or what do you call it?"

"Seiðr." Sif supplied.

"Yes, that." Death said. "Well, what is one of the fundamental rules of it?"

"To not break the rules of the universe?" Loki said, now confused. What did any of this had to do with his use of seiðr?

"Yes, but what is the one relating to energy?" Death asked and Loki wondered whether the Cosmic Entities had some issue with giving straightforward answers. Now he knew why Thor had always been annoyed with him whenever he gave a long explanation instead of an answer to his brother.

"Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only converted and we should use that conversion judiciously." The trickster recited from memory of his first seiðr lesson with his mother.

"Exactly." Infinity said. "What Thanos did using the stones to kill half the population, was attempt to…"

"Attempt to destroy energy. He tried to erase them from existence, from all of time, reality, everything." Loki said as he somewhat started to understand what Lady Death had meant.

"Now you are getting it." Death said. "You see, even we," she gestured to herself and the other Cosmic Entities, "cannot change that rule. Which means that what Thanos attempted to do with the stones was impossible. But his wish had to be carried out. He wanted lesser population in the universe, so the stones did just that. They removed half the population at random, but what would they do with that much energy? All those souls cannot be brought to me unless I claim them myself."

"Store it." Loki said, remembering his first few lessons. "A seiðmaðr or seiðkona always stores energy when it is not required."

"Exactly. And since the energy was all soul energy, it is stored in the…"

"Soul stone." Loki breathed out.

"Which is why, we want you to get the stones back to us." Eternity said. "Do you know what happens when a foreign energy is stored for too long? You should be knowing it. You use it in your daily practice."

Loki nodded and vanished his glass to the bar countertop to explain the situation to the clueless Asgardians in the room, who for the first time in a really long time were actually paying attention to what he had to say. "Do you all remember how sometimes on our 'adventures' I would ask to rest for some time in an area that resembled the nature as closely as possible?"

"Yes, you used to say that you needed to recharge your seiðr or something like that." Hogun said with a nod.

"Well, what I really was doing was absorbing the natural energy that was present wherever we were." Loki opened his hands with palms facing up and threw up a projection of what he was explaining. "The nature around us is filled with energy, be it a life source or the heat or whatsoever is present over there." With that the projection shifted to show the different energies he was talking about. "I would soak up all of this energy. Any seiðmaðr or seiðkona can." The image showed the energies moving towards the figure that had the likeliness of Loki.

"All of this energy would be stored inside me and the longer it stayed with me, the more it got converted to my energy, that is, my seiðr." The white colored energy turned green as Loki explained. "You see, the amount I would absorb was only little and only when it was really necessary, otherwise seiðr does not need to be taken from outside sources. It can replenish itself, just like someone's strength is replenished after resting. Because the amount was little, it would convert faster."

"However, with the soul stone," the projection shifted to show a yellow colored stone and then zoomed inside it to show millions and millions of white lights, "the amount of energy it absorbed is far too large to be converted immediately into the stone's energy, but at each passing moment, there is energy conversion taking place. Meaning, that at each passing minute, some poor soul is getting converted into the soul stone energy." With that, the image started showing a few white lights turn into yellow balls of light. "This will continue till all energy is converted to soul stone energy." Turning to the Cosmic Entities, Loki asked, "How correct am I?"

"Right on point." Death said. "Now you see why I do not like this situation? I do not get the souls at all. This is just irritating. Had it been done in any other way, I would not have cared, but now I do. By doing this, Thanos has essentially cheated me of all the souls that I was due. If he was trying to impress me, he has horribly failed. Entropy on the other hand…"

"I like it." Trop said. "Too much chaos out there. It's fun. Which is why I more or less don't care what you do."

The Grandmaster moved a piece on his board and said, "You have to understand that once the conversion is complete, the amount of energy inside the soul stone would be impossible to handle and there would be a high chance of the stone itself exploding under the burden. Hypothetically, it would destroy half the universe and they," he pointed to the Cosmic Entities, "would have to rebuild it from scratch."

"So, you all want the stones back and you want Loki to do it?" Sif asked skeptically. "Why Loki? Why _him_ of all people?"

"Normally, Sif, I would be offended, but," the god turned to face Eternity, "why me?"

The six cosmic beings looked at each other and smiled as if they were privy to a joke that the Asgardians were not and maybe they were. Eternity stood up and said, "Come with us."


	7. Chapter 7

**(A/N- Hey guys! Thanks a lot for the reviews, favorites and follows. They seriously make my day and encourage me a lot!**  
 **This is a slightly bigger chapter than the others... I think. Mostly because I wanted to concentrate on Thor's POV but even then I had to split it cuz it was just taking up too much space.**  
 **Anyway, enjoy the chapter and lemme know if you want something/someone particular in the fic and I can try and see if that would go well with the story line I have in mind.)**

 ** _ **CHAPT** ER 7_**

 _Location: A'askavariia_

The red and blue grass swayed lightly in the early morning breeze and green flowers bloomed under an orange sky as the sunrays from the two suns touched the buds. The peaceful atmosphere was however disturbed as a rainbow colored light lit up the area and deposited four people and a ship in the middle of the moorland.

Thor stumbled as soon as he touched the ground and was held up by Tony and Nebula. Sweat covered his face and he was panting with overexertion. He could feel his eye drooping and he forced himself to stay awake as he took in his surroundings. There was no sign of civilization near him and he hoped that he had landed on a habitable planet in a peaceful part of the universe.

"Where are we?" Tony asked as he looked around him and tried to keep the heavy Asgardian upright.

"I don't know." Thor managed to say before his eye rolled back and he grew heavier. Tony and Nebula laid him on the ground while Rocket took out his device and started to work on finding out where they had landed.

"Do you have water or something in that ship?" Tony asked Nebula, who nodded and went to get one of those weird and potent energy drinks that Drax had been obsessed with ever since the Guardians had visited Acalidon, a party station in the Gwoich Star System.

Rocket fussed about his device and sat down next to Thor. As he waited for the results to come up, he said to Tony and Nebula, who had now returned with the drink, "He probably passed out of exhaustion. Before we left Terra, he said that he didn't know for how long he would be able to continuously use this rainbow thingy."

"Did you find out where we are? I don't think I have been here before." Nebula said to Rocket as Tony managed to feed some of the energy drink to Thor.

The raccoon looked at his device and said, "A'askavariia. I connected to the home network of this planet and it shows A'askavariia-FR29/231. They are somewhat peaceful people living in ordered anarchy. Quill once dated one of their kind, but he always denied it." Rocket had a bittersweet smile on his furry face as he remembered the one night they all had sat down and talked about all the different planets they had been to. It had started off as each of them trying to outdo each other and ended up with all of them reliving fond memories.

"A'askavariia?" Thor said groggily as he tried to sit up. The energy drink had been pretty strong. "Never heard of it."

"You wouldn't have." Rocket informed. "This planet is in a remote part of the universe. Not too hostile, so that's a good thing. Also, this locator shows that we are in one of the inhabited islands on this planet. Not many of those around here."

"What happened buddy?" Tony asked his friend in concern.

Thor put the Stormbreaker in his lap and said, "This is a new thing, to summon the Bifrost. Heim-Heimdall used to use his sword to summon it with dark energy if he didn't have access to the Observatory. The same energy is in this," Thor pointed to his new weapon, "but I am still not used to using it for so long."

"Pfft. You'll get used to it. You got it only yesterday." Rocket said with a shrug and disappeared inside the ship. "Come on, you idiots! You gonna sit out there like targets or you gonna come inside?"

As soon as they all were inside, Rocket raised the shields of his ship and sat down in the captain's chair. He and Quill had always fought over the chair, each wanting to be the captain. The fights usually ended with Gamora knocking both of them out and taking over the ship. With a heavy heart, he fiddled around with the controls and set up the Proximity Alarm and a few others.

"Normally, these A'askavariians don't leave their mainland but you can't be too careful." Rocket said and jumped off the chair and led the others to the inside chambers of the ship, carefully avoiding the private sleeping quarters. He didn't want to see the rooms just yet, even though he could picture them – Groot's messy room, Drax's filled with the various junk food, energy drinks and magazines, Mantis' looking like a spa and Quill and Gamora's that would be half organized and half looking like a meteor just hit it. He wasn't ready for that yet.

He led the others to the crew sleeping quarters, which were in the opposite hallway to the Guardian's sleeping quarters. Looking at Thor, he said, "You should get some rest. You look like shit. And you both too. I'll be in the front."

"You too get some rest, Rabbit."

"I thought his name was Rocket." Tony said as soon as Rocket had left.

"It is." Nebula said, searching for her things that she had left on the ship the last time she had been here.

Thor shrugged and said, "We call the creature a 'rabbit'." A faraway look came in his eyes and the god said, "He reminds me of this one time in our youth, almost seven hundred years ago when Loki and I had gone on a trip to the mountains. Just the two of us, no guards or friends with us. I still do not know how he managed to convince both Father and Mother to allow such a thing. But on that trip, we had come across a new born rabbit and took it home with us. We cared for it till it grew old enough and then one day wanted to leave. Don't tell anyone, but I'm sure Loki was the most upset that day." Thor laughed lightly, lost in thoughts of his childhood.

"Well, I don't know about you, but on Earth, that creature is a raccoon." Tony argued, trying to get the god's mind off his once again dead brother.

Tony still remembered the last time Thor had told him that Loki had died. He hadn't said anything about how it had happened and had completely shut down for months before coming into their common room one day with a new armor and a new hair style. The glorified mechanic had always wondered whether it was the Asgardian equivalent of a makeover but no one had mentioned anything to the god as they were just glad to have their friend back.

Thor shrugged once again and said, "They are just words. What for us is a rabbit, is a raccoon for you. It does not matter. There are places where red is blue and blue is orange. Still words. They don't change the thing, only how you perceive it and what you call it. Language problems, I suppose."

Thor sighed and moved towards the front of the ship. "Come, we must not leave him alone right now. None of us should be alone right now."

They found Rocket sitting on the Captain's chair and staring at the sky outside. His whiskers quivered every now and then and his ears twitched as the others entered the area. He sighed and said, "Sit. Don't touch the controls."

And they all sat in silence for the longest time, all lost in thoughts.

Tony cleared his throat and addressed Thor, who he knew was awake despite his closed eyes, "Thor, you said that Pep and the others wait for me. Who…who all…?"

"Your friend Rhodey is well and so are the Avengers. What did you call us…? Version 1.0?"

"All of us? They all are okay?"

"That's a relative term but they are alive."

"Alive is good." Rocket said gruffly and Tony nodded as he started to breathe a bit easier.

"What about Version 2.0?" Tony asked and he didn't even need to see Thor to know and feel the grimace on the god's face. "Who all are still…? I mean I know Vision wouldn't be. He had a damn Infinity Stone in his head. But the others?"

"Why did you have a person with an Infinity Stone in the head?" Nebula asked incredulously.

"Accident." Tony and Thor said in unison.

"Wanda… she isn't…" Thor said. "And umm… the Falcon, Steve's friend."

"Sam?"

"Yes, that one and his other friend too and the King of Wakanda."

"T'challa," Tony sighed, "and the other friend… did he have long hair and a missing arm?"

"Yeah. That dude. Cool guy. Cooler arm." Rocket said.

"Barnes." Tony said. "That was… Steve's best friend from his days before he became Captain America and also one of the reasons why the Avengers broke up."

"Why did the Avengers break up?" Thor asked, feeling angry about the whole thing. What could prompt friends to break up like that?

"Long story short, the usual things that break a group up – secrets, difference of opinions, hiding things. Important things."

Thor nodded in understanding as he thought about how Loki had broken away from their family and friends. These things, it turned out, were universal.

"They were heading back to the Compound when Rabbit and I left." Thor informed Tony and hoped that the animosity would not exist in such trying times.

"Good. That place is protected well enough. How do you feel, buddy? You think you can…?"

Thor nodded and got up. "Let's give it a try. I'm rested enough."

"You… might wanna make a pit stop." Rocket said, his eyes on his communication device. "We got a message from your friend, Oda."

"What does it say?"

"Yoda?" Tony asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oda. King Oda of Planet Nix." Thor corrected and then asked, "Who is Yoda?"

"Short, green guy with long ears. You know what? It's not important right now." Tony said dismissively.

Rocket tapped the message and read out, "King Freyr of Vanhym-Vana-something."

"Vanaheim." Thor said.

"Yes that. Anyway, that dude found the broken ship of yours and … I'm sorry about this… your people who were aboard. He is conducting a mass traditional funeral for them at 15-23 standard universal time. That would be…"

"Midnight on Vanaheim." Thor said as he started pacing the length of the room. "Midnight is when we conduct our funerals. Start of a new day and all of that. I could drop you all of on Midgard, I suppose and then go to Nix."

"Isn't it on the Vana place? Why go to Nix?" Rocket asked.

"I would first have to send a message to Freyr about my arrival. I cannot just appear like that over there. Not like we did on Nix. It would be considered disrespectful, not to mention that they would fire at us without checking first. Vanaheim has always been prone to attacks because they have a lot of precious resources and they have pretty trigger-happy people over there."

"Time out." Tony said, holding his hands up in a stop motion. "There are different time zones in place, right? So, when exactly would be midnight on this Vanaheim of yours?"

"In linear time without taking into account the time zones?" Thor asked and then looked at the display unit of the ship and said, "Probably in another 15 or 20 minutes. I could…"

"You should be there." Tony said, getting up from his place. "They are your people and you should be there. We can reach Earth later. This is far more important."

Thor nodded and breathed out shakily. Funeral. He couldn't believe it. Not that long ago, he had been dreaming of settling down on Midgard with his people and now… His people deserved the best there was and he would give it to them. He would go there and he would be present. He would remember each person that had stayed back with the king and paid with their lives.

"Come on, Point Break, let's go." Tony said, donning his hoodie once more.

Wordlessly, they all followed the upset king and disappeared as Biforst took them in once again.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Avengers Facility, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

Steve was laying stiffly on his bed on top of the covers, staring at the ceiling. He had lost track of how long he had stayed like that but he guessed a few hours, seeing that the first rays of the sun were starting to enter the room through the gaps in the curtain. He was honestly surprised when he had entered his room the night previous. All of his belongings were kept exactly where he had left them. He had half expected Tony to throw out everyone's stuff after what all had happened between them. Even the curtains had not been fully drawn as he had always liked to feel the morning rays on his face when he woke up. Now, it only reminded him that more or less a day had passed since Thanos had won and he and everyone else would now have to face the depressing truth.

As he watched the rays elongate and start to reach the far corners of the room, the good Captain wondered what had happened to his friend. He had never stopped considering Tony his friend, despite Tony trying to kill Bucky and then having the team imprisoned. That was why he had given Tony the phone with his number fed into it. Unfortunately, Tony hadn't called him when it was really required. Steve couldn't help but wonder if that was because Tony didn't have time to call him before everything went sideways or whether Tony didn't trust him enough to involve him in something like this. He wished it was the first one but he wasn't too sure.

Steve sighed as his morning alarm rang in the too silent room and he turned to switch it off. He almost thought of waking Sam up for their morning run before remembering that his friend was gone and he cursed at himself. Unable to lie in his bed anymore, the Captain donned his jogging attire and went for his usual run around the compound, hoping that it would ease his restless mind a bit.

X-X-X

The smell of coffee was what woke the ex-assassin up and she sat up abruptly before lightly groaning at her stiff neck and back. Looking around her, Natasha remembered that she had fallen asleep on the couch while talking to Pepper. Natasha looked at the couch that Pepper had occupied last night and found the strawberry-blond frowning in her sleep. The two ladies had stayed up for majority of the night before exhaustion had taken over and they both had slept off.

"'Morning."

The now blond looked at the entrance to the common area and saw Clint standing there with two cups in his hands. Natasha raised her hand slightly towards the coffee and Clint gladly brought the drink to her.

"Morning." Nat said after taking a few sips of the coffee. It tasted the same as it had always done, of Tony's favorite Jamaican coffee. Nothing had changed at all except maybe their friendship but she hoped that it was still reparable. That is, if Tony was even… no, he would be. Everyone from the original team was fine and Tony would be too.

"What's the time?"

"Almost 8.30." Clint replied, drinking his own coffee. "Steve and Bruce are cooking… something. I don't even wanna ask."

Natasha smiled at that. Just like old times. Steve and Bruce had sometimes cooked the breakfast, even when they used to live in the Avengers' Tower and the result of their cooking had always been a weird combination of something edible and something so bland that it should be made illegal, as they both were used to surviving with the bare minimum. But they had made it work. The only thing missing was Tony's mumbled rants about some latest project and Thor's half-snores as he would inhale most of the coffee before actually waking up.

A sleepy groan brought Nat out of her thoughts. Pepper turned around a bit before giving up going back to sleep and got up and immediately smoothed her tousled hair as she realized that she wasn't alone.

"Morning guys." Pepper greeted groggily and asked, "Anything new?"

"No. Sorry." Clint said sympathetically and prayed for Pepper's sake if no one else's that Tony was safe and sound wherever he was in the universe and that Thor would find and bring him home soon enough.

"Hey, guys. Breakfast's in the kitchen." Bruce said, his head peeping around the door jamb. "Don't worry, it's only pancakes."

"Thanks." Nat said with a small smile and watched with a pang as Bruce awkwardly smiled and retreated to the kitchen.

"Are the kids up yet?" Pepper asked Clint as she got up from the couch. She knew the only way she could keep herself sane till she knew of Tony's condition would be by throwing herself into work. Any work.

"I think so. Laura said that she would wake them up. You still haven't met any of them right?"

"No, I haven't." Pepper said and then excused herself to go check up on the other house guests. As she walked through the hallways and greeted Steve, Bruce and Jim on the way, she was glad that she had company. The house had always felt so empty in the last few years that the sudden increase of people had brightened up the day despite the situation.

Pepper skipped her and Tony's room completely and went to check up on the room near theirs that was now occupied by the Keener siblings. The room was quite bland in taste as Tony had still been debating on the type of furnishings he had wanted. She had always wondered why he had left that room empty instead of giving it to one of the other Avengers and she had gotten her answer the previous day morning when Tony had suggested children. She wondered if he had always had that plan in his mind or if it was one of his 'spur of the moment' things.

Pepper found herself staring at the children in the single bed that she sometimes used when she and Tony had a huge argument and imagined her own children in their place. She flung the thought out of her mind as Harley sat up and looked at her questioningly.

"Hey." Pepper said softly.

Harley waved at her slightly before looking at his sleeping sister. The boy looked as tired as he had looked when he had first arrived and now had dark circles around his puffed eyes. Pepper wondered if he had cried during the night. She wouldn't have blamed him. She too wanted to cry her heart out but she couldn't. She had to be strong. She could already see how the others were at their wits end. She wanted to be strong for them. She wanted to fulfil the role that Tony had many a times taken – of being the ray of hope when the Avengers would lose hope. He had done that quite a few times, whether it be in the field or at home.

"Do you want to sleep some more or you wanna get up and get some breakfast?" Pepper asked, crossing the distance to reach the boy.

Harley shook his head and whispered hoarsely, "Breakfast."

"Okay, go on and freshen up. You too, Jo." Pepper said, nodding at the girl who had been watching the two out of barely opened eyes.

Pepper met up with May, Happy and Rhodey as she walked the children to the kitchen which was now filled with people. A brunette that was most probably Clint's wife and Jim were making pancakes while Steve, Bruce and Natasha were sitting around the island, digging in. The dining table was occupied by Scott and his daughter and Clint with his three children. Pepper handed out food to the Keeners as introductions were made all around.

She quickly hit it off with Laura Barton, and took quite a shining to the children. They all sat down and talked about anything that wasn't related to recent events. It was halfway through Laura and Clint's story of their vacation that their peace was somewhat disturbed by F.R.I.D.A.Y. announcing that they had an incoming call from the U.N. rep.

"Transfer the call to the conference room. I'll take it over there." Rhodey said, getting up and Pepper joined him.

"I want to listen in." Steve said and the other Avengers agreed. Whatever would be discussed would no doubt affect all of them.

"Okay." Pepper said with a nod.

"Join us. It is only a voice call." Rhodey said and walked out of the kitchen with the others following behind him.

"Peanut, I'll be back in some time, okay? Jim's gonna be here." Scott said to his daughter as he got up to follow the other heroes out.

"Relax, I'm fine." Cassie said and made a show of eating her pancake.

"Come on. Let's see what the Government wants now." Clint said and motioned Scott to follow him. By the time the two reached the conference room, Rhodey was already talking to the Justin character.

"…back." The voice came over the speakerphone that held everyone's attention.

"It's not an issue. I just returned earlier this morning but you would have already known that." Rhodey said in his usual business like voice.

"Yes, we did. Thank you for providing breakfast to my people, by the way." Justin said and they could hear him smiling over the phone. When F.R.I.D.A.Y. had informed them that the other car was still there, Pepper had sent some coffee and food for the agents or whosoever was in the car through some of the bots and Happy. Even though it would have been way more polite to do something like that herself or through one of them, neither she and nor did anyone else, wanted to meet anyone from the outside world.

"Now, let's get down to business. First things first," the voice spoke, "why am I not speaking to Mr. Stark. Wasn't he the spokesperson for the Avengers?"

"He is currently unavailable." Rhodey said.

"Yes, I heard that before from Ms. Potts. But…"

"When I say he is unavailable, it means he isn't here right now."

"And where is he? Can I get a full picture?"

"I would rather wait for your boss to join in the call before I explain that. I don't want to explain everything twice."

"This is Cassidy Whitman," said a female voice. "You can explain now. Or actually, if you do not mind, I have taken the liberty to bring myself to the Avengers' Compound. We could have this discussion face to face considering this is such an important topic."

All of them looked up as the screen in front of them showed the security camera feed of two other standard black cars joining the first one at the vigil outside the door.

The voice continued, "If you are worried about hiding the others who are currently fugitives, do not bother. I know they are over there and I don't think we can really afford to pick fights where there are none. This is far more important than some Accords."

There was a long silence as the Avengers looked at one another and Rhodey switched on the 'mute' option. Once the red light blinked on the dial and indicated that they could no longer be heard by the two U.N. reps, they all started to discuss.

"My family is here. No way is anyone allowed to go near them." Clint said vehemently. "I don't care what the situation is."

"Same with mine." Scott said and Pepper agreed, thinking about the Keeners.

"How about we get the others in one of the secure rooms and F.R.I.D.A.Y. can monitor it all?" Steve suggested.

"You want to go through with this?" Nat asked.

"We have to. We can't hide in here. Accountability, right? And anyway they all deserve to know the truth, the sooner, the better."

Before anyone could say anything else, Whitman's voice said, "How about only Mr. Clampton and I enter the Compound? Only we will meet and talk to you. No one else. No other officials. Nothing."

Steve looked at everyone else and leaned over to hit the 'unmute' button. "That would be acceptable."

"Thank you, Captain Rogers."

As soon as the call disconnected, they all went to the kitchen to explain the situation to everyone over there.

"Just be in this side of the building. I'll be putting everything on selective lockdown, okay?" Pepper said, gulping down her coffee.

"You too, Pepper." Rhodey said.

"No." Pepper said with determination. "I'm sitting in instead of Tony."

"Pep…"

"Rhodey. My house, my rules."

Rhodey sighed, knowing that Pepper could be as obstinate as Tony and grumbled, "I can't believe you pulled that card. Fine, come on. Let's get everything in order. Happy is already at the gates."

They had sent Happy to ensure that only Clampton and Whitman entered the compound. As they all returned to the conference room, Pepper instructed F.R.I.D.A.Y. to lockdown everything else other than the route to and from the main entrance to the conference room. Soon after, Happy led in two people.

The man, Justin Clampton was a tall, middle aged man with short, brown hair, styled in the standard military way and kind, brown eyes and slight wrinkles that hinted that he smiled a lot. The woman, Cassidy Whitman was slightly older than her assistant. Her blond hair was tied up in a bun and despite her warm and bright smile, she looked like she had not seen a wink of sleep in the past 24 hours.

Once the introductions were made and everyone had settled, Whitman asked, "Can all of this be explained? Yesterday morning, we had an alien spaceship hovering over New York and there were reports of attacks in Scotland."

"And then," Clampton picked up, "we had Captain Rogers and the others walk in during a video conference with General Ross. I was also sitting in on that meeting. Anyway, fast forward to early evening, we have people turning into dust and just disappearing all over the world."

Steve nodded, understanding their confusion and explained, "The aliens that attacked both New York and Scotland yesterday were part of a larger group that was working for another alien called Thanos. The first attack was on New York…"

"I was present for that." Bruce cut in, knowing it would be better if he explained the things that no one else but he was present for. "Those aliens were searching for something called the Infinity Stones."

"Infinity Stones?" Whitman repeated in confusion. "What are those and why would we have them?"

"According to Thor, these stones are one of the most powerful things in the universe and that there are six of them in total. Imagine them as something out of one those adventure movies or stories where someone needs to collect all of them to…"

"…to achieve whatever the goal is." Clampton completed with a nod and then explained, "My kids are really interested in all that stuff. You can't help but watch it with them."

"Yeah." Bruce said. "Anyway, this Thanos was after these six stones and he came to Earth because we had two of these stones here."

"Excuse me?" Whitman sounded almost offended at being told that.

"We always have had at least one of these stones with us. The Tesseract," Steve said and waited for the two officials to acknowledge, "was one of them."

"But we don't have the Tesseract." Clampton said. "According to the S.H.I.E.L.D. case files, it was given to Thor to take it back to his planet for safekeeping."

"Yes, it was," Bruce agreed, "but the scepter that Loki had brought along with him when he attacked us was another…"

"Another one of these stones?"

"Yeah."

"Wasn't it the scepter that started the whole Sokovia battle?" Clampton asked, leaning forward.

"Essentially, yes."

"All we are aware about the scepter was that it was in the hands of H.Y.D.R.A. and it was being used to experiment on others and that it was destroyed in the Battle of Sokovia." Whitman said and looked at the others. "It wasn't, was it?"

"Not really." Steve confirmed.

Rhodey decided to come clean and said, "We registered Vision as an android that was made with a mixture of Stark Tech and Asgardian magic, but he was actually a combination of Earth tech, Asgardian magic and the Mind Stone. That's one of the Infinity Stones. His creation was actually an accident but it seemed that the stone would remain safe with him and so we didn't try to take it away."

"Wow." The two officials had identical looks of someone who had to digest a lot in a short amount of time.

"Okay. So, Vision is one of these stones things. What about the other? You said that we have two of them?" Whitman asked.

"We don't know much about the other except that it was kept in safekeeping with someone." Bruce said, carefully thinking about his words. He wasn't sure how much of this the wizards would appreciate. "This person was in New York and that's why those aliens came over here, to find this person and take away the stone. When he refused to give the stone, they took him away and Tony, I mean, Mr. Stark, went in after them to protect the person and the stone."

He had been about to say something about Spider Man but the slight warning look from Pepper had stopped him from mentioning anything about the mysterious school kid.

"Who is the person that you are talking of?"

"I honestly don't know him. I literally just met him yesterday for a few minutes before the aliens kidnapped him."

"I never thought I would see a day where I would take those words seriously." Clampton mumbled to himself.

Cassidy Whitman stared at the scientist for some time. She had done her research on the Avengers two years ago when it had been clear to the U.N. that General Ross was not a good correspondent for the Accords and she had been handed the control of the Sokovia Accords. Unofficially, of course, since the U.N. needed a valid reason to remove Ross from that position officially and so her assistant, Justin had gone in as a supporter of Ross and joined the team that was headed by the ex-Lieutenant, to find information about how the whole thing was being run. They had been pretty close to removing Ross from power permanently when the aliens decided to pay a visit.

In any case, she had read up as much as there was to read about each Avenger and their registered allies. She knew about their personal, professional and hero life. And she knew their personality.

From the S.H.I.E.L.D. files that her office had received, it had been obvious that the original Avengers team was haphazardly put together and ex-Director Fury had been pretty confident that the team would break up as soon as the danger had passed. But both he and the WSC had been surprised when the Avengers had only taken a short break and then resumed working together. That was when the secret organization had taken up a serious evaluation of the team and the major conclusion that they had drawn was that despite their differences, the team was very protective of each other and whosoever they considered an ally. So she knew that the man hiding the beast would not give up the name of someone, however recently acquainted, who was considered an ally by the Avengers.

Nodding slightly and vowing to get the name of this mysterious person somehow, Whitman said, "Alright. So, this person and Mr. Stark are somewhere in space. Any communication with them?"

"No." Natasha answered. "But Thor and another ally of ours have gone to search for them."

"So, that's what you meant. I thought Ms. Potts was stonewalling me." Clampton said.

"I needed time for the Avengers to get here. I cannot take any decisions on their behalf." Pepper replied with a little smile. She, for some reason yet unknown to her, knew that these two would be a million times better than Ross and maybe with time and good behavior, they could even earn the team's trust.

Clampton nodded and asked, "So, this alien… Thanos?"

"Yes."

"His objective was to what? Kill people? Why?"

"We don't know. We just came to know of him yesterday." Steve answered. "Thor probably has more information about that seeing that he has been searching for answers to all this for quite some time, but he is not here. When he comes back, you can ask him yourself."

Whitman turned to Clampton and said, "We need to issue a press statement. Maybe even a press conference, after we talk to the Council."

"World Security Council?" Steve asked.

He had never liked that Council. They were impulsive and didn't think out things. Who would in their right mind, release a WMD at one of the most highly populated cities in the world? Thank god, Tony had had the idea to take it out of the portal. Thinking about his friend, made Steve once again pray and hope for his safety. They needed Tony to come back. He needed to be safe. He was one of the original members, he was their oldest friend and if something had happened to him, Steve didn't know for how long the Avengers could hold on together. When Bruce had disappeared after the whole Ultron fiasco, the team had been tilted and slightly fractured, especially as Thor had left soon after. No, Tony needed to come back.

"No, the WSC had been scrapped after the Project Insight fiasco." Clampton answered. "I am talking about The General Assembly, but they can convene a special assembly only on request of UNSC – the actual organ of UN that WSC was somewhat based on. By the way, can you lift the jammer that is put in this room? I need to send word for Emergency Meeting to UNSC."

"F.R.I.D.A.Y." Pepper instructed and the A.I. informed them that they could now receive phone signals in the room. That was a standing protocol that Tony had put in place so that no one could listen in on them or disturb them.

"I know this is going against protocols," Whitman said, as Clampton went to a corner to talk to someone, "but I will arrange for all of you to be present at the meeting. It would be better if the world came to know of this through the people who were actually present over there, not to mention, you all are a beacon of hope right now. I will have Mr. Clampton arrange for everything. Thank you."

Not soon after, the two officials were escorted out of the compound and the Avengers joined their families in the common area and Pepper went to get in touch with some of her employees. She still had a company to run, end of the world or not.

"Now what?" Laura asked the others as they all watched over the kids chatting with each other.

"We wait." Clint answered. "For both Tony and further information from Clampton."

"Don't have to wait for long." Rhodey said as he entered the room and pocketed his phone. "Clampton just called. They arranged for the UNGA meeting in the evening. By then majority of the world leaders or their stand-ins would be able to make it here to New York."

"And all of you have to be there?" Laura asked.

"Version 1.0 needs to be there." Steve said and explained, "I mean the original team needs to be there. The others can attend if they want to."

"I hope Thor and Tony can be back by then." Bruce said and the other Avengers agreed. It felt weird to not have the whole team there and especially when they had to put up a united front in front of the entire world.

"Yeah." Steve sighed and moved to stand in front of the window, hoping that the rainbow light would light up the front lawn as it usually did to signal Thor's return.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Mid-Point, Bottom of the Universe_

The elevator deposited 12 beings in the giant, circular, seemingly never ending room, lit up in soft yellow lights. The room was built around something, but none of them could see it. The only way they even knew that there was something in the middle of the room, was because of the glass casing that stretched on forever and the raised platform and railings that went around the glass casing. It wasn't the enormous proportions of the room or even the glass casing that stopped the 6 Asgardians in their stride, it was the view inside. Or the lack thereof. Because the insides of the casing were empty and dark like the darkness that could be seen from the Bifrost bridge back in Asgard.

"Where are we?" Fandral asked, looking around the room. There was nothing special about the room they were in. It had plain walls that had lights every few yards and the only slightly notable thing about the room was the fact that none of them could see the other side of it, even through the glass in the middle. It unnerved him a lot but he wasn't going to let it show.

"The Center."

"That's what we call it anyway." Infinity said, looking in pride at the glass casing.

"And why are we here in this 'Center'?" Volstagg asked. He still hadn't come to terms with anything he had been told ever since he met Loki and Heimdall in the room above and so he had been pretty skeptical when the entities had asked his friends to follow them to some mysterious place that would suddenly reveal why Loki was so important to the all-powerful beings.

"More importantly," said Heimdall, "what is this the Center of?" His all-seeing, golden gaze was fixated towards the glass casing and try as he might, he just could not see what was inside. It frustrated him to no ends but there was a nagging thought in the back of his head that he had felt something like this before. He could not pinpoint that either.

"Now that is a good question." Grandmaster said loudly and looked at his companions and asked, "Who wants to tell a good story?"

"I will. You all always gloss over important points." Eternity said and motioned others to gather around him.

"Loki, come on." En Dwi said and pulled Loki out of his trance like state.

That was when the others noticed that the trickster god had not moved from his place where the elevator had dropped them off. He was looking at the glass casing with an overwhelmed look on his face. Schooling his features, Loki joined the others but still made sure to stay farthest from the casing and ignored the weirded out looks that his old friends were giving him.

Eternity cleared his throat unnecessarily as the Grandmaster passed out drinks to the Asgardians, out of whom only Volstagg and Loki accepted them. "Do I have everyone's attention?"

"Just get on with it." Death said, leaning against the railing.

"Shh." Eternity put a finger on his lips and then turned to address the Asgardians. "You all are aware of superclusters, right? You have some other name for the one you live in, I am sure."

"Yggdrasil. The tree of life." Heimdall answered. "That is the one we reside in."

"Ah yes. That."

"But isn't that a tree?" Volstagg asked.

Loki rolled his eyes and murmured, "It seems like you never paid attention in our lessons of the universe."

"He hardly attended those lessons." Fandral said, thinking about the number of times he and Thor had had to cover up for Volstagg's absence, all because he had been sneaking around either the palace kitchens or one of their favorite bakeries.

"They weren't the most interesting." The warrior answered with a shrug while both Eternity and Infinity glared at him for that remark.

Loki sighed in irritation and explained, "Yggdrasil is a supercluster in the vague shape of a tree. That is why we call it a tree."

"Which is why I always wondered why you used to say that you could travel using the 'branches of Yggdrasil'." Sif commented.

"Only because it is easier to imagine them as branches than as backdoors through the Nine Realms." Loki said skeptically, still unable to believe that the Warriors Three and Sif were actually paying him their full attention. He was suspicious of what they might want from him. They always wanted something from him. That was why they had tolerated him all those centuries.

"Ok, so what does Yggdrasil have to do with all of this?" Hogun asked Eternity.

"Hmm, yes. Well, obviously yours isn't the only supercluster in the entire universe. There are many others scattered all over."

"Like where Ria or Nix are situated." Sif said, giving Loki a side-eye. She wasn't going to forgive him for sending her to an almost hostile territory for a year. She would have preferred to stay on Midgard with that S.H.I.E.L.D. team.

"I have no clue what they are, but sure." Eternity said.

"They are some insignificant planets just outside their supercluster." Infinity informed him.

"Oh. Anyway…"

"You are absolutely horrible at this. No one will understand anything!" The Collector groaned. "Let the experts handle this."

"Will this involve holograms?" Entropy asked.

"When does it not?" Death replied as she watched Tivan taking up center stage and Eternity pouting like one of those little children she had seen on some of the planets.

"Alright. Story time." Tivan said, rubbing his hands together and throwing up a hologram that showed a large portion of the universe surrounding them. The Asgardians spread out as they tried to see more of the hologram while the celestials just stood off to one side.

"So, as you all know by now, the universe contains many galaxies, clusters and superclusters. Like your Y-sil."

"Yggdrasil." Sif corrected.

"That's what I said." Tivan said and continued as the hologram highlighted some of the clusters and superclusters he had been talking about, "Each of these contain some or the other form of life and the people residing within these structures can draw life and energy from the structure if they know how to."

"Like Loki?" Heimdall asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes."

"You draw life from Yggdrasil?" Fandral asked.

"No, you fool!" Loki huffed in irritation. How was he ever friends with the very people who never even understood the simplest of things about him or his powers? "I don't draw _life_ from Yggdrasil."

"Then what does Heimdall mean?" Hogun asked.

"Do you even know how seiðr works?" Loki asked and rolled his eyes at the blank expressions on their faces.

Before the god could say something rude and irritate the others, Heimdall explained, "Seiðr works on the principle that everything around us can be manipulated to the seiðr-user's whim and once a seiðr-user knows how to control this discipline, they can manipulate the surroundings. Their knowledge and powers are derived from Yggdrasil directly, but not many can actually reach a level where they can directly use the Yggdrasil."

Loki, going into his teacher-mode, like when he used to teach a few children of the palace staff back on Asgard about seiðr, started to explain, "Imagine going anywhere in the Nine Realms, without backup or weapons or even a healing stone…"

"That would be plain stupid." Volstagg commented.

Loki ignored the comment and continued, "…and being able to still survive whatever is out there. Imagine being on your death bed and having the nature revive you. That is what is meant by drawing power from Yggdrasil. If you have reached a certain level of control and awareness of the seiðr, then you don't have to consciously draw energy from the nature. The nature will itself transfer energy to you."

"That's not possible. If you are on your death bed then without healers or their powers, how would you even survive? Nature can't bring you to life." Sif said skeptically. She just wanted to wipe off the slight smirk that had somehow taken up a permanent residence on Loki's face ever since any of them started paying attention to his words. She couldn't believe that a decade ago, this same person would not have spoken much other than to throw insults or to persuade Thor from not doing something. In her mind, there were two Lokis – one who had died the day Thor had been banished and the other who was born the day Thor had been banished. She wondered if the second Loki had always been the real Loki and only needed Thor to be out of his way.

Her thoughts were cut short when Death spoke, "Unfortunately, for me that is, it is quite possible."

"You can do this, can't you?" Hogun asked with a raised brow. "That is how you are still alive when Thor had said that you didn't make it out of the fight with the Dark Elves. He said that he had held you, but that couldn't be an illusion because your illusions can't be touched. So you must have done this… this transferring of life or power or whatever."

"And at least one of you actually has a brain." Loki drawled and looked to address the Collector. He didn't want to discuss his powers with these people. It was obvious that the celestials knew but his annoying and hare brained ex-friends had no need to know of that. "What does that have to do with the story that you are telling."

Tivan shrugged and said, "Oh, nothing. Not yet, anyway. I was just telling that it is possible, it is you all who decided to digress."

"Then I apologize, please do continue." Loki said, reverting to his inherent politically-polite nature.

"Right!" Tivan said excitedly. "So, superclusters. Now, there are many, many superclusters and clusters out there and all of them are interconnected."

The hologram zoomed out to show millions of superclusters and clusters surrounding each other. "The areas that you use to travel through using spaceships and what not, are actually the pathways that connect all of these structures together. These pathways are the only ones on which you can travel."

The Collector flicked his hands and the visual changed to complete darkness. "But before all of this, we need to go further back. This darkness you see, this is the void."

"Ginnungagap" Hogun said and didn't miss the way Loki paled and moved slightly towards the light emanating from one of the walls in pretense of getting a better view of the hologram.

"Gin what?"

"It is what we call the void." Heimdall answered.

"You have weird names. How difficult is it to say, void?" Grandmaster asked.

"You are not even telling the story in the correct order." Eternity frowned.

"Anyway," The Collector said and smiled when he had everyone's attention, "this void is what existed in this universe before these four," he jerked a thumb towards the Cosmic Entities, "decided to make something out of it. So, life as we know it was created. But the void still exists and that is what ultimately connects every metaphorical corner the universe. No one can travel in void unless they are a celestial being like us."

"Or Loki." Sif mumbled, looking at Loki, who was now staring into the glass casing as if it held answers to all life.

"That was an accident." Death said sourly.

The hologram shifted to show various light rays popping up all over the void and intersecting each other many times. "Now, since no one can survive the void, they created these pathways on which life can survive. But that too was not enough for life to sustain. The planets on these pathways would not even survive for a millennium, but the planets at the intersections," some of the intersections were highlighted, "they could survive almost anything. So, all life that is thriving out there is because they are on these intersections and anything not on these intersections, do not survive for that long. But the pathways are used to travel to other structures as they all are connected. The pathways form a sort of bridge that connects all life."

"Like the Bifrost." Volstagg said.

"Much like that." Loki replied. He was now facing them and hologram, now that it no longer showed only the void. "Except that Biforst is a faster pathway that was created by Asgardians but these are natural pathways, like roads. Your speed on these depend on the speed of your transport, but Bifrost does not follow the same rule. Bifrost is a transport of its own, cutting through anything in the way, including the void."

Tivan manipulated the hologram to now show the various intersection of these pathways and said, "Your supercluster, Y-sil? It is one of the most populous ones out there just because it has way too many of these intersections within it."

"Each of the Nine Realm has an intersection of many paths." Loki said and looked at Tivan for permission. When he got a nod, he shifted the hologram to show the familiar map of the Nine Realms, except now it also showed the pathways that they had been discussing. Each of the Realms, barring Svartalfheim, had multiple intersections like crossroads. "And at each of these intersections is where the Realms lie, except for Svartalfheim. Their pathways are now passing through a black hole. Not much scope of life over there."

"Anyway," Tivan said, taking over the hologram once more, "all of these pathways have to emerge from somewhere, right?"

The hologram now showed all the pathways emerging from one point at the bottom of the hologram and then winding their way all over the place.

"This," Loki said, pointing to the bottom of the hologram first and then to the glass casing in front of them, "is what is in there."

"What?" Fandral asked, looking at the darkness in front of them.

Heimdall stared at the casing in frustration and said, "That actually does make sense."

"How can you tell?" Sif asked Loki.

At the same time Hogun asked Heimdall, "How does it make sense?"

Heimdall shrugged and replied, "I cannot see what is inside there, the same way I cannot see Loki when he is hiding himself from me."

"If Heimdall cannot see it, then it makes sense why we cannot see anything either." Volstagg said, looking at his friends.

"But," Fandral asked as he watched Loki go to the platform surrounding the center, "if these are pathways, shouldn't we be able to see them? I mean, don't you need to see where you are going on these pathways?"

"That's why we have stars. The only reason you can see where you are going is because of the stars out there." Infinity answered.

Eternity jerked his head towards the center and said, "You don't need stars over here. No one can travel this far and no one uses the Mid-Point to travel anyway."

Loki was now so close to the glass casing that his face was almost touching it. Tilting his head up, he tried to look as far as he could into the darkness and then leaned in to look down. A smile slowly lit up his face, a smile of pure, unadulterated awe and wonder.

"What is he doing?" Volstagg asked, looking at Loki.

"Discovering." Eternity replied.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Nix, Just outside the Nine Realms_

"Cool!" was the first thing out of Tony's mouth, the minute they landed on Nix.

"It really is." Nebula said, rubbing her hands together.

"I wasn't talking about the temperature, Smurfette."

Thor ignored the little banter between the two Guardians and Tony and focused on his surroundings. He had told Rabbit to send word of their arrival and was sure that the royal guards should be there to escort him. He looked around him and realized that he had landed on one of the most frequently used spots for Bifrost landings – the palace backyard. He had honestly just being aiming for not landing on someone or something. The god closed his eyes as he felt nausea take over once again. He felt like emptying his stomach except for the fact that there was nothing in his stomach to empty. He didn't know for how long he could continue using the Bifrost without passing out. He hoped that he had the energy for at least two more trips.

"Point Break? You okay, big guy?" Tony's voice cut through the daze that had settled in Thor's head.

"Yeah, yeah." Thor said dismissively and took a few deep breaths.

The sounds of approaching footsteps made the four look in front of them. From the palace's back entrance came a dozen men dressed in royal blue and silver, walking in typical honor guard position. Between them was a girl who looked to be in early twenties but looks could be deceiving. The procession stopped in front of the new arrivals and the girl bowed her head to Thor, bringing a fist over her heart.

"King Thor."

"Princess Eira. My condolences." Thor replied in the same manner sans the bowing. Tony supposed the god didn't need to bow considering he now ruled over the nine realms.

The princess smiled sadly at Thor and said, "Thank you. I am so sorry to hear of what all has transpired. Father filled me in on everything. May they all rest in Valhalla."

Thor smiled politely and thanked her. Noticing her grey and purple attire – the traditional colors for mourning on Nix, he guessed, "I have come at a bad time."

"We have not started yet. Father could not be here as he has to make the arrangements but he does send his regards."

"Please thank Oda for me."

Tony tried to not grit his teeth in irritation. All of them knew that Thor was in a hurry but the damn political responses had to intervene even now. The customary pleasantries and all that still had to be exchanged. This was exactly why he hated politics. You could never get into the heart of the matter directly. Nope. You had to go through millions of social protocols before you even reached there.

Eira took out a small device from a bag that none of them had noticed her carrying and handed it to Thor. "This is but a small token of gratitude from our side." As Thor accepted the device with a small smile, she said, "It has already been tuned in to the required frequencies."

"Thank you. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it." Thor replied. "Please do not let me keep you waiting. I am sure the ceremony is about to start. I will find my way out of here."

After a few more pleasantries, Eira bid them farewell and walked back to the palace which was now lit up in hues of grey and purple.

"What's that?" Tony asked, pointing to the device in Thor's hand.

"Communication device." Thor replied, already typing something into it. "I am sending a message to Freyr's personal device. That way he will know that it is truly me who is contacting him as very few have the DSSC."

"Device Sequence Security Code." Nebula said before Tony could even think about asking what a DSSC was. "It is one of the most secure way to communicate."

Tony wanted more information on all of this alien tech around him but he knew now wasn't the time. But later, when they returned to Earth, maybe he could get Rocket and Nebula to explain him alien tech. A few moments later, the device made some noise and Thor looked at it solemnly.

"Let's go." He told the others. "We have got the approval to enter Vanaheim."

X-X-X

 _Location: Vanaheim_

"Are you sure it is him?" the golden haired woman asked for the millionth time.

"Yes! For the last time, Idunn, it is Thor himself who messaged me." King Freyr yelled at his sister and rubbed his forehead.

"Fine. There is absolutely no need to be so rude." Idunn said as she smoothened her gown. The siblings were on their way to the designated landing spot for Bifrost for diplomatic missions. For rescue missions, the rescuers usually landed wherever they were needed, which was why half of the villages that were way too far from the capital city always had the Bifrost runic designs all over them.

"I just wanted to know how you are so sure."

"Because he signed off as 'drykkjumaðr' and addressed me as 'gløggvingr'. Who else except Thor or Loki would have the gumption or even the knowledge to do such a thing?"

Idunn laughed lightly and said, "None. No one other than the four of us and the other cousins were present during that particular diplomatic meeting."

Freyr snorted as they came to stop near the landing space and said, "That was hardly a diplomatic meeting. We all got so drunk and high that we had to sleep for an entire week just for the effects to wear off. I still do not remember everything about that week."

"Here they come." Idunn said as soon as the familiar rainbow light filled up the area. When it died down, Thor stood there along with three others and a blue ship.

Both Tony and Nebula held on to Thor's arms as they felt him sway. "Thank you friends," Thor mumbled, "it would not have made a good impression if I fell face first on the ground."

Idunn chuckled from where she was standing and Thor groaned. "I forgot she could lip read."

The cousins moved towards each other and came to a standstill in the middle while the other three were still standing awkwardly near the ship. Freyr and Idunn brought their fists over their heart but before they could greet Thor, the god shook his head.

"Not this time."

Idunn grinned at the waiving away of the proper etiquettes and launched herself into Thor's arms. "I'm so glad you are alive! And what have you done to your hair?"

"It's good to see you too, Idunn." Thor held on to his cousin sister a bit longer than he normally would have but it was so, so good to see family, extended as it may be, after all that had happened over the past week. Releasing Idunn, he hugged Freyr, her older brother and then introduced his friends, old and new, to his family.

"You actually made it before time." Freyr said as the group now walked back to where the royal guards were waiting for them. "I had been broadcasting that news for so long in the hopes that either you or Loki would hear about it and come."

"You knew Loki was alive?" Thor asked in confusion. He was pretty sure that no one had called Loki out on his bullshit.

"Do you remember Helga?" Idunn asked.

"That völva who sprayed me with dragon piss? How can I ever forget her?"

Tony and Rocket snorted at that and Rocket said, "Now that's something I would like to see."

"You really don't want to meet an angry Helga." Thor replied with a grimace.

"To be fair, cousin, it was kind of your fault. You angered her. She retaliated." Freyr told Thor. "Anyway, she had this prediction that Loki was alive. I didn't know what to believe. On one hand the All-Father had declared the customary mourning for Loki and on the other hand we have Helga telling us that Loki would return."

"And we all know that till date Helga has never been wrong." Idunn said. "So…"

"So?" Thor asked, clenching his fist and hoping that his cousin wouldn't ask the question he knew she was going to ask.

"So, was she correct? Did Loki return?"

"When has she been wrong?" Thor cross questioned with a sad smile.

"Wonderful." Idunn said with a grin that was copied on Freyr's face.

Before either of the siblings could ask another question, Thor asked, thinking about Freyr's twin who had been named after a variation of his mother's name, "Where is Freyja?"

"Someone had to stay at the palace and look over the preparations." Freyr said. "By the way, do you have any idea about what is happening to everyone? What is with the dust? Is this something to do with Ragnarok? Because Helga didn't say so but she has been way more agitated since that happened and all of this has been getting on my nerves especially with both Mother and Father…"

Thor exchanged a glance with his friends and the four told the whole story in pieces to the siblings as they walked back to the palace with the guards. The solemn party was greeted by a tired Freyja at the palace's entrance.

"Brother, could we wait for half an hour more? We have gotten confirmation from Alfheim and þvait moon in Niflheim." Freyja asked her brother as she stepped out of Thor's warm hug.

"Ask him." Freyr nodded to Thor.

"What?" Thor asked.

"The Æsir communities on both Alfheim and parts of Niflheim want to be here for the – the funeral. Do you want to hold till they arrive? It would probably take them half an hour to get here as they are using multiple portals." Freyja told Thor.

"Hold." Thor said after a few moments and Freyja sent the new orders through someone. Looking at his cousin brother, Thor demanded, "Tell me everything."

The younger king nodded and started to explain, "You know of the Alfheim-Jotunheim Trade Treaty? The one with the half yearly deliveries?"

"Yes."

"Well, Alfheim was delivering the usual cargo to Jotunheim when they came across a flying piece of metal. This is what has been reported to us. Anyway, they at first ignored the metal until they came across what seemed to be parts of some furniture. That is when they decided to go and investigate. They found a giant ship in pieces and people floating in space. They contacted the nearest station that just happened to be one of mine and we sent our soldiers to see what it was all about. One of the Vanir identified a friend of a friend and soon we found out that it was the ship that carried the remaining Asgard. Helga had predicted that anyone who survived Ragnarok would be on a giant ship."

"What hasn't she predicted?" Thor mumbled under his breath.

"We brought everyone back here along with the debris of the ship. That part is still in progress but I think we have gotten everyone."

"Thank you." Thor said gratefully, his throat choking up with emotions and his heart beating with dread for what was to come.

They had reached one of the conference rooms and the Vanir King dismissed the guards as he felt that Thor might need some time alone and away from prying eyes.

Thor sat down heavily in one of the chairs and closed his eyes as he mentally prepared himself for what was going to happen. His people, his-his kind, they were all gone. Not gone, his mind reminded him. Many still existed but they had settled down all over the place and even though Thor was essentially their king, they weren't the ones he had promised himself to take care of. His head felt heavy with all that had happened and his heart had yet to move past his brother's death to even go through the death of the many Asgardians.

A part of Thor didn't want to attend the funeral, didn't want to see the faces of those he had been unable to save, didn't want to see Heimdall and mainly didn't want to see Loki. He would not survive that. They hadn't had a funeral either of the previous two times that Loki had been presumed dead, even though he had been mourned and actually conducting a funeral this time would make the death permanent. Thor didn't want that. He didn't want to come to terms with his brother's passing. He had lost Loki before but this time, this time it just felt so much more crushing. Maybe because it felt so final, maybe because he had no other family to turn to or maybe because he had finally let his guard down and hoped for a better and improved future with his brother by his side. But all of that didn't matter anymore. Loki was gone and Thor was alone and he did not want to be reminded to that.

"Thor?" Idunn's soft voice cut in through his thoughts.

"Hmm?" Thor looked at his cousins' faces and knew that they were going to ask some sensitive question. The three had a peculiar tell that Loki had once pointed out to him. Every time they wanted to ask something sensitive or something that they weren't too sure of, the corner of their mouth would twitch in a weird way, as if they were trying to hold back a grimace.

"You never…" Freyja said, "You never said a thing about Loki. He survived Ragnarok, did he not?"

Thor nodded.

"Then why is he not with you?" Freyr asked. He could not remember a time when Loki had left Thor's side or vice versa. The brothers were widely known as Thor-and-Loki just because you would never find one without the other. Ever.

"Do you jest me?" Thor asked in a silent voice that was usually followed by him smashing something.

"Of course not."

"You say that you found all the-the bodies."

"Yes, we did. We ran a scan over the whole area just fo…" Freyr trailed off as he realized what Thor implied.

"N-no." Freyja muttered and shook her head in denial. Out of the three siblings, she had been the closest to Loki as they both were interested in seiðr and had even studied it together for a great many years.

"We-we didn't… they-th-they would have informed us if-if…" Idunn stuttered as she sat against the table in shock.

"You didn't?" Thor asked in confusion. "What about Heimdall?" Even if he could hope for a tiny second that Loki had once again faked his death, he was sure that Heimdall couldn't have faked his.

Freyr shook his head and denied that.

"Are you sure you found everyone? Because I saw… those… I saw."

"We will continue searching then." Freyr said vehemently, just as a knock sounded on the door. A guard came to inform that the Asgardians had just arrived and everyone had assembled by the river side.

"Thor?" Freyr said softly once the guard had left.

The god stood up and wordlessly led them all out.


	8. Chapter 8

**(A/N - Phew! This was one tough chapter to write. Sort of. In the end actually. Anyway, I hope you guys like this chapter. Lemme know how you find it.**

 **Thanks a lot for all your reviews. They really make my day! :D**

 **And I agree with you, ThatOneGuest - I'm also looking forward for Thor and Loki getting to meet each other.  
Selina - Yup, I don't like Sif much either, but that girl has got to learn somethings now and so do the others. As for Brunnhilde, she doesn't know anything about Loki apart from what she saw on Sakaar and what she has heard from others. Let's see if she gets to learn more about him or not.**

 **Happy Reading! )**

 ** _CHAPTER 8_**

 _Location: Vanaheim_

Tony would have appreciated the landscape if it weren't for the reason that he was there for in the first place. The funeral, which he had learned was going to be for both the Asgardians lost to Hela, Ragnarok and Thanos' attack and for also for all those across the nine realms who were a victim of Thanos' mad schemes, was being conducted at a river side. Tony had given up trying to understand the name of the river after the fourth try. Apparently, proper nouns could not be translated by the 'All-Speak' and the Vanir word was too complicated to be pronounced by him. Seriously, did they not use vowels? At all?

The water body was calm, just like the forests that ran along one of the river banks. As far as he could see, both the river and the forest stretched on forever. Tony was standing to one side with Nebula and Rocket, who were probably feeling as awkward as he was at being present at such an intimate event. Sure, the whole of capital city of the planet and many Asgardians had come to attend it, but the whole funeral still gave off a private feeling and Tony had even suggested that the three wait for Thor in The Benatar but the god had refused to hear a word of it. He had quietly asked Tony to accompany him and the mechanic had gotten the unspoken message that Thor needed the moral support and that was how he found himself looking at the preparations being made for the funeral.

The river bank in front of him was covered with silvery long ships, each containing a body of the person who had been brought back by the Vanir forces. Each body had been covered with a golden-silvery shroud and many of the people had kept their own belongings with the bodies of the deceased. Idunn had explained to the three that usually the deceased's family would keep some of the person's belongings that the person could carry on to Valhalla, but in their absence, the people improvised.

There were five long ships that were kept separate from the others. They were the ones which didn't contain any bodies, only some belongings and shrouds. As storm clouds gathered above them and lightening started to light up the whole area, Tony looked around for Thor. After living with the god for a couple of years, he could now differentiate between natural storms and the ones that Thor created. And this one was one that Thor had created. Tony spotted the god kneeling in between two of the five separated vessels. He was surrounded by the three Vanir siblings that they had been with some time back and an elderly lady whom Thor had referred to as 'Aunty Eir'. The five of them were keeping some things in the two vessels. Tony looked away from the extremely private scene. He had a feeling as to whose funeral vessels those two were.

After some time, the three were joined by Thor and the other royals. They were the first line and only a few of the royal guards were in front of them as they were the ones who had to push the long ships into the river. Thor had explained to them that usually the ritual was done at sea but the sea on this planet was pretty far away from their current location.

Iron Man could feel the second the ritual had started. The entire area became silent as if someone had put a spell on them all. There was no sound, no rustling of trees or the hushed rhythm of the river in front of them. A faint song started somewhere at the back of the crowd and the first ship was pushed out. It contained a golden-bronze shroud with the design of two ravens and a staff in between them.

Thor prayed in a quiet voice that was heard by everyone in the quiet of the night, "Odin, I bid you to take your place in the halls of Valhalla, where the brave shall live forever. Nor shall we mourn but rejoice," the god paused as he replayed the memory of the first time he had uttered the same words and imagined his brother saying the rest along with him, "for those that have died the glorious death."

A fire arrow shot out of somewhere and the ship caught fire.

Tony was suddenly reminded of a similar funeral he had seen in some animated movie. He and Pepper had been on a vacation and had visited the Keener family some years ago. Joanna, the little girl whose watch Tony had once borrowed, had insisted they watch some animated movie about dragons and Vikings and all of that and Tony had been sucked in by her and Harley's puppy dog eyes. His heart raced as he wondered if the two children were alright. To his side, he could feel Thor's body straining to control himself in front of everyone else.

A second ship was rolled out and this one contained a green shroud with the design of a golden, horned headgear and silver knives. There were actual silver and bronze knives that were kept in the long ship along with some green and black dress clothes and a book. Freyja had retrieved those items from Loki's room in the palace. Both Thor and Loki had visited Vanaheim so much that they had been allocated their own adjoining rooms in the palace and had many of their belongings kept over there.

Thor took a deep breath. This was exactly the one thing he had always dreaded. When he was a child, he had never thought that he would have to see a day without his brother by his side and even after a couple years of living without his brother and thinking him to be dead, Thor had not gotten used to the idea. He had always thought that he would be the first one to go or that the two of them would leave for Valhalla together, but now… He found himself unable to recite the age old prayer. He didn't want to say it because that would make it all the more real. He wished Loki would pop out of nowhere with a mischievous smile, a devious plan and the cunning spark in his eyes that had been lost for quite a while now. The god felt himself choking up as he thought about how he would never see any of those things ever again.

Through his blurred vision he could see the boat going further away. He knew he needed to say the prayer but he couldn't. He just couldn't say goodbye to his little brother. Tears were now rolling down his one functional eye and he gritted his teeth. He found courage in the form of his memories. He thought about the time right after they had escaped Asgard's burning grounds. He thought about how Loki had permitted and had even been somewhat eager to exchange a long due hug. He closed his eyes and imagined the warm hug enveloping him and he found a little strength to say the words.

The boat was now farther away, almost having caught up to Odin's funeral boat and Thor suppressed a huff of laughter at that. It was just like Loki to follow his father everywhere, like he had done in their childhood. In a watery voice, the god said, "Brother… Loki… I bid you to take your place in the halls of Valhalla, where the brave shall live forever." Sniff. "N-Nor shall we mourn but rejoice for those that have died the glorious death."

As soon as the prayer was said, a fire arrow shot out and the boat lit on fire in the distance. Thor felt all of his energy leave him in that instance. He felt lost – utterly and truly lost. He had no family, no place to call home. An image of Sakaar popped up in his mind and he could finally understand the allure that place held for Brunnhilde. It was a place to run to when all was gone and Thor was suddenly having a craving to go away from everything and hide in a corner, never to show his face to anyone he knew or anyone who knew him. But he kept standing as a third boat was rolled out.

The Vanir royalty said the prayer for their parents in a subdued voice and the routine continued. The next two ships were for the ones lost on Asgard during Hela and later Surtur's attack and those lost to Thanos all over the nine realms. Then the remaining ships were rolled out and they all watched in silence as the river was lit on fire. Some cried, some hugged in search of comfort and some like Thor stood over there, looking at the burning horizon.

After around ten minutes, Thor turned away from the river and walked back to the palace, his friends following him, while the Vanir cousins went on to talk to the common folk and arrange for the funeral feast.

Standing in the throne room, Tony and the two guardians looked at the various paintings and murals as Thor and Freyr talked some things out – something about the remaining Asgardians wanting to follow Thor wherever he went and Thor having to stay long enough for the feast, not that Tony was eavesdropping. It wasn't his fault that the painting near the two cousins was so interesting to look at.

"Everything okay?" Tony asked as Thor joined him and Freyr left the room to attend to some duties.

"Yes," Thor said in a subdued voice, "we can leave in another half an hour or so."

"What about the feast? I thought you were going to stay for it."

"No, but Freyr wants me to stay for it. That would be the polite thing to do, but we need to get back to Midgard. Your family awaits you and so do the people."

Tony kept quiet. He knew he should at least offer for Thor to stay with his people for some more time but he was homesick. He wanted to go back and see with his own eyes that Pepper was alright. There were somethings that he wasn't looking forward to but seeing his Pepper and friends would compensate for it.

"Why wait for half an hour?" Nebula asked as she tore her eyes off a mural depicting the cordial relations between Asgard and Vanaheim.

"There are some favors that I need to ask of Freyr and some instructions for my people." Thor replied and smiled at Idunn who had just entered the room.

She led them to the family room where the guests were offered food and drinks while Thor disappeared into some chambers to collect some of his belongings. It was a short while later that Idunn went in to check after Thor and came back with a somber expression and led the three to the landing area, saying that Thor would meet them in some time. True to her words, Thor strode in with Freyr and was followed by Freyja and the elderly lady whom they all addressed as 'Aunty Eir'.

"Cease your worries, Thor. Your people are safe here and they can stay here for as long as they wish. They had been staying here for all these years and I see no concern that they should have to relocate now." Freyr was telling Thor as they neared the blue ship where Tony, Nebula, Rocket and Idunn were standing.

"Thank you, Freyr. I am in your debt."

"Then add it to the drinks you already owe me from half a century ago."

"I wish you would forget about that."

"That day would never come."

"There is another thing that I wish to ask you…"

"Speak your mind, cousin." Freyja said.

"When the Statesman was attacked, we had managed to get some of our people off the ship…"

"The escape pods!" Freyja exclaimed. "We did find evidence of some missing escape pods but since we did not know how bad the condition of the ship was, we could not decide whether those escape pods had been destroyed or whether they had been launched."

"They had been launched, as far as I know." Thor told them. "If I remember correctly, they were heading towards JP-20AV/3. At least that was where we were heading right before all this happened."

"That's a jump point." Nebula whispered to Tony, having taken upon herself to educate the Terran about outer space. "The 20AV represents the sector the jump point is in and the 3 after the slash represents that it was the third jump point in that area."

"Cool. Thanks." Tony replied, his brain automatically registering that piece of information in a folder for 'Space Stuff'.

"…troyed." Idunn was saying with a frown.

"Are you sure?" asked Thor.

"Yes, our people found the pieces of the jump point in the floating debris. But there was no sign of any escape pod." Freyr said, thinking back to the little briefing he had gotten from one of his council member right before Thor had come.

"Maybe they made it to the jump point before it was destroyed?" Idunn suggested. "Where were they heading to?"

"Midgard" replied Thor.

"You should have come here. Midgard is so far away." Freyr admonished his cousin.

Thor nodded. "I probably should have but even at the best of times, our people have had a strain on the relationship and what with the reduced support of Asgard, I was quite worried."

"You needn't have worried. Thanks to the reduced support, we actually were able to build up on our own defense system. Regardless, do you think the escape pods reached Midgard?"

"Is the 3rd jump point not for travel to Alfheim?" Fryeja asked in confusion. "They would have to change the settings if they wanted to go to Midgard."

"Maybe they ended up in Alfheim's realm." Idunn speculated. "We could get in contact with Princ-Queen Draupnir to be on the lookout for Asgardians."

"Yes, we could do that." Freyr nodded his consent.

"Thank you so much." Thor said in relief. "There were around a hundred people who had managed to escape, mostly women, children and a few warriors to protect them. There would also be some Sakaarians – warriors of different worlds outside the nine. If you are able to get in contact with them ask for the Valkyrie or Korg of Krona. They are in charge."

"Valkyrie? As in…?" Freyja asked in awe. "They exist?"

Thor nodded and said, "Only one of them."

"Wow."

"We will get in touch with you if we get any news of anything." Freyr promised. "Will you be able to receive messages on Midgard?"

"My friend, Rabbit here, would be working on some way to get a functioning network inside Midgard. If that is unsuccessful for any reason, I would visit here in two days' Asgardian time. Will that be alright with you?"

"Sure. Just make sure to land right here and nowhere else." Freyr said with a smile. "And do let me know if you are able to receive messages on Midgard."

Thor nodded and smiled gratefully at his cousin. He could already tell that Freyr would turn out to be the best king Vanaheim had ever had. "One more thing. Aunty Eir…"

"My king, you cannot address me so anymore." Eir said with a shake of her head.

"Well, I am king, so I can." Thor replied cheekily to his mother's oldest and best friend. "So, Aunty Eir," Eir rolled her eyes, "could you coordinate and look after the Asgardians over here? I would rest peacefully knowing that they are in good hands and as soon as I am able to get hold of some arrangement for settling Asgard, I could contact Freyr."

"Very well, my King."

"Thank you, all of you." Thor said gratefully and joined Tony, Nebula and Rocket in front of the ship. "I should leave now. There is still a lot of work to be done."

"Fare thee well."

Thor smiled and looked at Tony and the latter nodded. He was so ready to go home.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Mid-Point, Bottom of the Universe_

Sif followed Loki's movements with her eyes for quite a while. The prince mostly moved around a small part of the center area as one would around a window, in order to get a better view of the outside. In a weird way, this could be regarded as a window, but for the life of her, Sif could not understand what exactly Loki was trying to look at. Whatever was inside the casing was either invisible or so dark that it could not be seen, which made sense since Infinity had said that the stars were the reason anyone was able to see anything out in the space. That still didn't explain what Loki was looking at or how he had even known what the casing contained.

Fandral nudged Sif and broke her concentration of following Loki's movements. Everything that had happened till now since Loki's reveal in Asgard had been just mind boggling and Fandral hadn't even begin to grasp or some to terms with the tip of it and now they were all somehow thrown into the middle of some cross-space adventure complete with a super villain who had destroyed half the universe. A small part of Fandral's mind considered that had Thor also been present, this would have been just like any other adventure the six of them had ever gone on.

"What?" Sif hissed at Fandral, keeping her volume low. The whole area had become silent some time back. While the Warriors Three and she concentrated on Loki's reaction to the whole thing, the celestials were standing around looking bored and Heimdall was doing… well, whatever Heimdall did when he stood like a statue.

"Just ask." Hogun whispered from her other side.

Out of the four of them, if anyone had ever considered back talking or asking questions to the usual aloof Loki, it had been Sif. Volstagg was usually too easily distracted, Fandral would never go against authority unless he had been coerced or influenced by either Thor or Sif and Hogun, being a Vanir representative to Thor's private guard had never considered it his place to question either Loki or Thor. Therefore, leaving Sif, the brave maiden who had broken all conventional norms by gaining the favor of the Crown Prince and becoming one of his personal guards, to take up the job of questioning the two princes that the four of them had come to protect over the years, Thor more than Loki in any case.

"He can see it." Sif said after some time, in a confused voice, as though she herself could not believe the words that came out of her mouth.

"What?" asked Fandral.

"Loki." Sif said and then repeated it loudly when the said person made no acknowledgement of her. When he still didn't turn, she grumbled, "This is just like when he would get lost in reading a book that nothing short of Queen Frigga's words would get him to react to anything."

"What do you want?" Loki's exasperated voice floated over to them.

"You can see it."

Silence.

Sif growled and Loki said, "Sorry, did that warrant a reply? I was under the expression that that was a statement."

"Can you see it?" Sif gritted out. Loki was being way more difficult than he usually was. Well, that wasn't true, but he was being more difficult than he normally would at the beginning of their conversations. Usually, this level of annoyance would occur when they were halfway through a conversation that Loki had been dragged into.

"See what?" Loki asked calmly as he suppressed a grin at the frustrated look on Sif's face. He had finally turned around to face the others and now Heimdall was giving him one of his signature 'I-am-disappointed' looks. That was fairly standard for Loki to receive and so he paid no attention to it.

Ignoring Sif's annoyed look, Loki turned to look at the celestials. He was in no mood to talk to any of his former companions. Talking to them was always an exercise in self-restraint and with his recent discovery, he wasn't in the mood to play that particular game. He didn't want to bring his pleasant spirit down.

"I'm sure that the story is far from over, Collector."

"Correct. Let us continue." The Collector said gleefully and once again brought the projection that had faded a bit, to the forefront.

"So, as Loki pointed out, that thing in there," he pointed to the casing to his right, "is actually the base from which all of the paths emerge."

"But it is at the bottom of the universe, if what I had heard previously was correct." Fandral interrupted. "Then why is it called the 'Center'?"

"What do you know of the 'Theory of Multiple Universes'? I am assuming that at least one of you, barring Loki, has heard of it." Eternity asked.

Hogun nodded and answered, "It assumes that there are other universes that are similar to this one, but no proof has been found of that, as far as we were taught. Although there are multiple dimensions as many of those who have seiðr utilize it to store various items." He looked at the confused faces of his friends and said, "What? On Vanaheim, it is mandatory to learn about the space and seiðr."

"I should have been found by a Vanir family." Loki muttered to himself.

"Right you are." Infinity said with a pleased smile. "There are multiple universes that are more or less similar to this one and just like this universe, they too contain the same pathways that Tivan just explained to you all."

"Meaning, this," Ter nodded towards the casing, "is the center of all such pathways. This is the mid-point of all the universes."

"Which is why time is stagnant around here." Loki guessed and based on the smile on Ter's face he was more or less correct in his assumption.

"Anyway, that is not important. Well, not important for the story." Tivan said, once again making sure that everyone concentrated on him. "Let's get to the part where I explain why Loki is useful for this particular endeavor."

"Yes, please."

"So, you all discussed earlier about some people being able to draw life and energy from the superclusters and Loki being able to do that…"

"And that's why he has to go get the stones?" Sif asked skeptically.

"Not if that was the only thing he could when it came to natural universal energy." Tivan said. "Loki can also traverse these paths without a vessel."

"Yes, using old portals or the sort." Volstagg commented.

"Portals?" Loki sounded offended and asked, "Who came up with that?"

"How else would you travel the Yggdrasil without vessels? I assumed…" Volstagg asked in confusion.

"'Never assume and always clarify', or did you skip that lesson too?" Loki asked in a bored tone as he thought back to the first lesson that all of them had taken together with regards to political meetings. While Thor and Loki had to attend every single one of the lectures, their personal guard was given a bit more leeway in that aspect. Although, Odin and Frigga had made sure that the Warriors Three and Sif too attended with Thor and Loki as they would be accompanying the princes to all such political meetings and it would not be good for them to behave in politically incorrect manner.

Loki sighed as he realized he had to explain one of his biggest or maybe his strongest point with regards to seiðr use. He didn't want to do it. The lesser number of people who knew it, the better it was. Hel, even Heimdall didn't know about this if the curious look on his face was something to go by, but then again, Loki had made sure that the only one who actually knew anything about the extent of his capabilities was Frigga. Even Odin had never known about the intricacies of his 'world-walking' capability. Everyone had assumed and he had let them run rampant with that assumption that he used portals. Till date, Loki had no clue as to who had started that thought process but may the All-fathers bless that ignorant soul.

"It is an old art form." Loki said and thought about how to put forward the theory of world-walking in simple terms but at the same time not telling everything about it and especially about his own unique ability. "The art of world-walking is all but lost and confined to a few old texts and mother's memories."

"And now yours, I presume." Fandral said. He had never assumed that Loki was weak just because he didn't use the traditional methods of fighting. Okay, so he did assume that a little, but not to the extent the others (except Hogun, whose entire family had seiðr users) did. In any case, he knew Loki wasn't weak or defenseless. He was known as the most formidable seiðmaðr for a reason, even though those reasons eluded him and his friends. But the things Fandral had found out in just a span of few hours about Loki was putting the whole thing into a new perspective and he realized that maybe they all had grossly underestimated Loki all through their lives, because coming back to life after actually dying? That was unheard of and if it didn't involve any illusion tricks, then… what else could the second prince do?

"You presume correctly." Loki said smugly. "If I were to simplify the whole process for all of you, I would say that this art allows me to traverse the whole of Yggdrasil within minutes. I could, hypothetically, travel from Asgard to Hel within a matter of half an hour or even less, considering the paths that I am travelling on. Obviously, I am yet to attempt something like that." There was no need to let them know of that one failed attempt, Loki thought.

"How does that work?" Sif asked, tilting her head to the side – something that she had picked up on Midgard.

Loki looked intently at his audience and tried to discern if anyone was being insincere but he found only curiosity on everyone's face, including the celestials, who would have to have known how the whole thing worked. A part of him wanted to explain how it all worked and show his ex-tormentors that he was far more superior than they all put together and yet a part of him wanted to hold on to the secret, in the fear of being mocked for his abilities, like he had been his entire life.

Pursing his lips, the god explained, "Put simply, once I can feel an energy of the paths, I can follow it to the main path and then have it bend any which way I want to go."

"This is why holograms are useful." Tivan said as he allowed Loki to take over the hologram once again for a better explanation.

Loki brought up Asgard and said, "To answer your previous question, Sif, yes I can 'see' the pathways. But that is a crude term. What I can do is feel and identify where the paths are and then I imagine them as branches of Yggdrasil as that is easier to imagine."

The hologram zoomed out of Asgard and showed a tree that bore resemblance to the Tree of Life they had all studied about. Loki zoomed in on a branch and said, "You see, each branch over here has 'twigs' that go in all directions. Just like that, the pathways have tendrils of harmless energy going out in all directions and many of these can also be found in almost all planets. One such tendril was available in the palace garden."

The hologram showed the palace garden with a yellowish tendril of energy hanging from the sky. "To simplify the whole thing even more, all I have to do is, catch a hold of this energy and follow it back to the main path that Asgard was lying on." The hologram now showed a silhouette of Loki using the tendril to get to a path that lied just outside the atmosphere of Asgard.

"Now, all I have to do is concentrate on the place that I want to go to and the path will bend in that direction. If there are multiple pathways in the middle, I need to 'get off' on those pathways and continue the process till I reach my destination." Loki said and the hologram depicted what he explained. The path in the hologram bent backwards till it touched another path that was a bit further away and 'Loki' hopped on to that path. The new pathway now bent downwards till it reached a third pathway that was right outside what looked like to be Vanaheim. Loki now hopped on to the third path and followed one of its branches that led to the edge of Vanaheim's capital city.

"That… that is… should…is impossible." Sif stuttered. How could such a thing be possible? This was something straight out of a children's book, like the types her mother used to read to her when she was just a babe.

Loki shrugged and said, "Perceive it as you will. I do not care."

Heimdall stared at Loki for some time and then asked the celestials, "So, is Thanos somewhere in Yggdrasil?"

"No." Eternity replied. "Why do you ask?"

"I am not quite versed with the art or even the theory of world-walking but what Loki just explained hints towards using the energy of Yggdrasil to travel and if I do remember correctly, each supercluster or cluster has its individual energy, making a seiðr user belonging to another area weakened in a new cluster. Asgard used to face that problem whenever our armies would go outside the Yggdrasil. Therefore, it leaves me to conclude that if you want to use Loki for this purpose, Thanos would need to be inside Yggdrasil."

"Phew! That was quite a speech." Grandmaster said with a grin.

"You are correct," said Infinity, "about the clusters having their own individual energy. But Loki doesn't need to worry about such things. Normally anyone who has the ability to use and manipulate the energies would face such a problem in a cluster that is not native to them, but that is the whole reason we need Loki for. You see he does not face that particular problem. He can use any pathway in the universe and use its energy for his seiðr purpose. That in itself is pretty unique."

"And by pretty unique, she means never heard of until now." Eternity added while Loki internally groaned. All of his secrets were coming out in the open and he was not at all happy with that.

"If I may ask, how do you know of this 'ability'?" Sif asked skeptically. She wasn't buying anything they said. She could understand and appreciate if Loki was one of the best seiðr users in the entire Yggdrasil, but world-walking? And that too in the entire universe? That sounded like a bunch of tall tales.

"The ability to world-walk is in itself very unique and hard to come by. So, when someone uses that ability, we keep an eye out for such individuals." Entropy explained. "So, obviously we did the same when Loki started to use these powers of his."

"Soon, it became clear to us that he could harness power from the center directly." Death said. "That is the only way one can use any pathway in the universe. After that we paid even closer attention to him."

"The elixir?" Loki asked Eternity as he put two and two together. Now he knew why he reacted so strongly to that elixir.

Eternity grinned sheepishly and answered, "Oh yeah. That was the liquid form of the powers of the center. I needed to check if you were really able to harness the power. You would have died when you drank the essence if you were unable to, so congratulations. You passed!"

Loki nodded slightly and asked, "So, now I know why I am still alive and for what purpose, but what makes you think that I would even want to go and face Thanos and get the stones from him? In case, none of you had noticed, the Titan is insane and now holds the entire universe in his hands."

"We know you will." Ter said confidently. That part of their plan had been a gamble. They weren't sure whether Loki would be willing to do such a thing, but Finney had pointed out that he would, if for nothing else then revenge for his own time spent under the monster.

"You should not rely much on that." Sif commented. She still didn't understand why Loki would be important if they were taking into account his so called 'world-walking' abilities. Another person could use multiple jump points and still reach this Thanos person. There was probably some other reason too or the celestials were just plain stupid.

Volstagg nodded and said, "And even if he does agree to go against this Titan, I doubt he could defeat Thanos and get these stones back. Would it not be better if one of you did it?"

"One of us?" Entropy asked in a mocking voice and barked out a laugh. "If one of us interfered every single time someone caught hold of the stones, half of the multiverse would have been destroyed by now. There are rules out there and the first rule is that none of us interfere in the workings of any of the universe unless it is to create it or destroy it. Any other interference is frowned upon. Heavily."

Death nodded and added, "Yeah, this whole helping vs enabling thing. We can help but not to the extent where it goes overboard."

"So, there have been others who have been able to get hold of the Infinity Stones?" Heimdall asked in confusion. If that were the case, then why had none of them ever heard of such a thing?

"Mhmm." Death nodded.

"Every once in a while and by that I mean millennia upon millennia, someone would be born and gather enough information on the stones to be able to collect them all." Infinity explained. "This is what? The sixth or seventh time this has happened? Most of the others were not able to harness the powers within as only beings of exceptional power can wield the stones. There have been two by now, barring Thanos, who were able to use the stones, but neither of them corrupted the power. Not to this extent any way."

"Normally, once the stones have been used, they scatter themselves on their own throughout the multiverse. They are after all sentient beings or semi-sentient at least." Ter said. "This is the first time we have actually had to interfere and even now we cannot do more than bring you all to life for this purpose. We do have rules to follow."

"Unfortunately." Death growled. "I would love to beat Thanos up."

"We should probably commend him for his achievement." Grandmaster said nonchalantly. At the looks he was getting, he clarified, "Oh, don't get me wrong. Thanos cannot have the stones with him any longer. But you have to give appreciation where it is due. Till date, he has been the only one who collected the stones so fast. I think it is the fastest. There should be a record. We should make…"

"We are not making a game out of this!" Infinity said sternly.

"Fine." The Grandmaster pouted.

"And anyway," said Death, "he had an advantage. For the first time, the stones ended up in the same universe. Normally, they would be spread out over the universes and someone would have to come up with an elaborate way to travel through multiple universes."

Loki was frowning and asked, "You said that the stones would scatter themselves. So why haven't they done that yet? Thanos' objective is complete, is it not?"

"It is, but he has also found a way to trap the stones with him." Collector said.

"The Gauntlet?" Loki asked.

"We had that too in the vault, right?" Hogun asked.

"That was a fake." Heimdall and Loki replied in unison and Heimdall continued, "The All-father Bor had kept that over there in order to spread the word that the Gauntlet was with Asgard, so that no one would be tempted to go to the dwarves and get the real one made."

"And how did that work out for you?" Grandmaster asked as he sipped on a drink.

"Anyway," said Loki, "is the Gauntlet not to be used in order to harness the power of the stones?"

"No." Infinity said with a scowl. "You see, the Gauntlet is an unnatural piece. No single artifact should be allowed to keep the stones in one place. There is a reason the stones are always scattered. That is not only to discourage others from obtaining them, but also to ensure that the stones don't imbibe each other's powers. That would happen if they are in proximity of one another."

"And I am assuming that is bad?" Fandral asked.

"Very bad." Death said with a condescending smile. Bad didn't even cover the surface of what would happen if the stones were allowed to be in proximity of one another for extended periods. At the least, they would start merging the powers and the laws of universe could be bent any which way by anyone and at the most, all of the universes would start combining into one and would end up cancelling each other out, till nothing remained. The only place that they could be in proximity of each other and not be able to absorb the powers, was the very place they all were standing in.

"Then how would anyone use the stones, if they cannot be kept in one place?" Sif asked.

Loki's eyebrows made their way towards his hairline as he finally understood it. He had always wondered why… now it was clear.

"Only beings of exceptional power can hold the stones." Eternity said. "You see, it would not be just one person in the entire universe who is powerful enough. There would be others too. Every other time that the stones had been used, it was because six such individuals had come together and used the stones at the same time for the same purpose. The times where the stones could not be used was because either there weren't enough powerful persons and the ones that were present were not able to contain the power of more than one stone or they all didn't have the same goal in mind."

"This is the whole reason why Thanos needed the Gauntlet to use the stones. He knew that he would never be able to get five other people to want the same goal that he did. He rules by fear and the stones would be able to guess that the people didn't actually want the same things and the stones would have just scattered themselves." Grandmaster said.

"For that, you would need to touch the stones." Loki said, his mind going a hundred miles an hour. "To be able to use the stones, you would need to touch them. But as far as I know, there was someone on Xandar who had touched the power stone and had almost been blown to pieces for that. No one remembers correctly as to how he managed to survive. Apparently, there was too much power in that area for anyone to see clearly."

"Ah, yes, the half-celestial kid. It's simple. He wasn't the right person for the stone." Eternity said with a shrug. "And even if a person is powerful enough to touch a stone directly, the stones will protest from being used. Which is the exact purpose that the Gauntlet serves. It absorbs all the tantrums that the stones would throw in order to escape being used. The two times that the stones have been used, the people had to come up with a way to safely use the stones without hurting themselves in the process. It's a tricky thing. But it can be done."

"So, what is it that we have to do?" asked Volstagg.

"He," Eternity pointed to Loki, "has to somehow get the stones back to us and you all," he pointed to the warriors and Heimdall, "have to well, make sure that he doesn't manage to die before we get the stones. The way any of you were brought back to life cannot be achieved again."

"What do you mean?" asked Loki. "And I thought Sif was not dead."

"Everyone except Sif had died." Death said with a nod. "You see, despite all of you having your Valhalla and Hel, every dead soul comes to me before being taking away by their people to whatever after-life you have created for yourself. When I got each of your souls, I just brought them here instead of sending ahead. Then we waited for Thanos to complete his objective. To fulfill that, the stones released a lot of energy and we used that energy to bring you five to life."

"As for Sif," said Infinity, "she would be one of those who would have died for Thanos' plans and so we brought her here right before that could happen. This place is the only one that cannot be affected by the stones."

The Asgardians looked at each other and Loki shrugged nonchalantly and said, "That makes sense."

Sif frowned, still not comfortable with why Loki was given such an important task. "So, we have to make sure that he takes the Gauntlet and gives it to you?"

"Gauntlet or no, we want the stones. That's all." Death said with a shrug.

"So, we steal the Gauntlet with the stones in it. Hardly the first treasure we have stolen." Fandral said cockily.

Loki rolled his eyes and said, "We steal from him." With that a hologram of a huge, purple being, wearing a golden gauntlet came into focus. "He is too powerful without the stones and with the stones… try almost impossible to defeat."

"Or we could just chop off his hand." Volstagg suggested, his hand on the handle of his axe that was hanging from his tool belt.

"Yes," Loki said sarcastically with a roll of his eyes, "because he would just stand there and let you chop his hand off."

"He is uglier than that dragon we defeated in Muspelheim all those years ago." Fandral commented in distaste.

"That he is." Hogun agreed as they all looked at the enormous, powerful being with some serious sanity issues that they had to defeat.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Avengers Facility, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

Jim chewed on his fingernail as he watched the red figures on the screen in front of him with a growing trepidation. The numbers were… overwhelming in the least. But they felt just like that, numbers. It still didn't feel real and he doubted it ever would. Every passing second, the numbers kept increasing and so did the size of his eyes. And to think that his fiancé was just a number amongst many others who were now just gone. Not dead. Dead meant there being a physical body or something – an external or internal cause that could be found out in post-mortem. Something, anything. But not this. This-this-this madness that just left nothing but ashes behind. No cause, no warning, nothing at all. A 'blink and you miss it' moment and it took so much away.

"Whoa!" Scott said as he entered the room, dressed in a borrowed suit.

The Avengers and their allies had all decided to attend the UNGA meeting that would be held in another three hours or so. Steve had said that the more numbers that the people had an opportunity to look up to for hope, the better it would be. They all had decided to get ready well in advance, just for having something to do. Hell, if they had to walk all the way to the U.N. Headquarters, they would do it, if it meant passing the time and not having to think about the things that had just happened.

"Shocking, huh?" asked Jim without turning around to look at Scott. "Where's Cassie?"

"With those two kids we picked up, Harley and Jo." Scott said as he came to stand next to Jim. "They are watching some movie but none of them are you know, paying any attention to it. I don't think we should have told them."

"The kids seem smart enough to have pieced it all together eventually and that would have been bad." Natasha said as she entered the room with Bruce. She was dressed in a black dress and stilettoes, looking like any other politician who would be present in the meeting, except that she also managed to look deadly at the same time. Her blond hair had been dyed back to the normal red, so that people would be able to recognize her instantly. Not to mention, she was dying to get back to her normal self.

"What the f-!" Bruce exclaimed as he took in the numbers in front of them. "How did the world population reach to that level?"

"You were gone for two years." Nat replied, leaning against the table in the room.

"But still, 7.6 billion? That's just crazy."

Clint walked in, straightening his stupid tie (seriously, why did he need to wear a damn tie? It was like a god damn noose 'round his neck) and asked, "What's the verdict?"

"5 million and counting." Natasha replied. Soon after the U.N. reps had left, Steve had asked FRIDAY to try and estimate how many had died. As of now, the A.I. was going through every bit of recorded evidence in the entire world. Predictably, that was taking some time to comb through. Obviously, that in itself would not give the exact figures. There were unregistered people, criminals, homeless people, immigrants, tribes and so, so many more that the world would have no knowledge of and now they never would as there would be no way of finding out just who all were gone.

"Fuck!"

"…call me back ASAP." Pepper was saying into her phone as she entered the room. "FRIDAY, keep tabs on SI employee responses."

"Got it, boss. There is a message from Justin Clampton for the Avengers."

"What is it?" Bruce asked and looked up at the ceiling.

"Mr. Clampton will be arriving at the compound in an hour with the press statement that his team has come up with and he will be accompanying the Avengers to the meeting."

"Let the others know."

"Already done, boss."

"The Wakandan craft will be landing in 15 minutes." The A.I. informed them. When the UNGA meeting had been announced, Shuri had immediately called up the Avengers and asked if she could arrive at the facility and accompany the Avengers to the meeting as her brother had both been a part of the superhero group and the Wakandan head of State. And Shuri being the head of State, had been given both the mantel of Queen as well as the next Black Panther. They had all agreed and Shuri was now arriving with Okoye and Nakia as security.

For the next fifteen minutes, they all kept themselves distracted thanks to the children. They had already explained what had happened to the children in the simplest and the least alarming way possible. None of them wanted the children to come to that conclusion on their own or through the media coverage of the UNGA meet that they were going to speak in.

Steve once again snuck a look outside as he had been doing for the past two or so hours. Still no sign marking Thor's return. He knew that the worry was eating at everyone, especially Pepper, Rhodey, Happy and May. The four of them were on the verge of losing it, especially with Pepper having to also take into account all the employees she had lost. Steve admired her ability to at least maintain an air of calmness if nothing else. He knew he was one step away from curling up and crying.

When Shuri arrived, he was grateful for having something to do and he knew that the team was too. They were all soldiers in their own respects and as such were accustomed to either having orders to follow or having a goal in mind. But now there was no such thing and they had all the time in the world to speculate and wonder where they went wrong. That in itself was a futile exercise, but one that they took themselves up on and now it was driving them all crazy. Greeting and showing around and introducing the Wakandans to everyone else was at least distracting them. It was when they were introducing the children to Shuri that the outside lit up the bright light that they immediately identified with the Asgardian Rainbow Bridge.

"Thor's back." Bruce said in shock and before anyone else could do anything, Pepper shot out of the room with Rhodey and May not that far behind. The others too ran to meet Thor and hopefully Tony, the elusive Spider-Man and the so called wizard and if they were lucky, then even the aliens that made up Rocket's team.

Tony breathed out in relief as he saw the familiar surroundings. It felt like years since he had last seen this place, when it was in fact maybe a day. He couldn't tell. He didn't know how much time had passed for Earth since he was gone. Damn time differences. In the outer space! Something that he still was trying to digest. He was bouncing on his toes in the anticipation of meeting Pepper and hoped that she was actually home.

He looked down at the lawn beneath his feet and mockingly griped, "Point Break! My grass! Do you have any idea how much time it takes to grow it all again? A lot!"

Thor rolled his eyes and said, "Apologies, Stark."

They were pretty near the building when Pepper suddenly appeared out of nowhere and grinned at Tony. That smile in itself made the other three stop someplace behind the Iron Man as they watched the happy reunion.

Tony sighed in relief as he finally saw Pepper's face and moved towards her of his own accord. Her usually prim and proper hair were tied up in a messy bun and there were dark circles under her red rimmed eyes. Dressed in jeans and an old t-shirt of Tony's, she had never looked more beautiful to him. The necklace that he had given to her, made out of the shrapnel in his heart, was gleaming in the sun.

"Pep," sighed Tony as he reached close enough to pull her in a hug and held on to her as if his life depended on it. She too was clinging on to him, her face buried in the side of his neck as finally, finally, the tears that she had held back all this while escaped her.

"You are ok. You are ok." She repeated under her breath as she leaned back a bit, but not out of his arms, to look at his face and catalogue any injuries. His face and eyes looked tired and there was what she hoped dust and not ashes of someone under his chin. Other than that he had no visible markers of sustaining an injury. But she knew from years and years of living with him that there was a very high chance of there being at least one fatal injury that he would try to hide. There was always one.

Tony brought his hands up to frame her face and whispered, "I'm ok." and then wiped her tears and pulled her in for a chaste kiss, only a reconfirmation of his presence. He pulled her in close to his side and kissed her hair as she leaned into him. It was only then that he noticed everyone else's presence.

Smiling at the approaching Rhodey and Happy, he pulled Pepper with him and gave the two men a one armed hug, his other hand grasped tightly by Pepper. There were others behind them, his team… were they still his team or Cap's? He didn't know but for now they were his too. He smiled at them too and then he saw her and his smile disappeared. May Parker was standing to the side, looking all around for her nephew. Tony could see the moment realization drew on her face and she turned to look at him with a slight hope and a questioning look in her eyes.

Where is he? That was the first question that ran through her brain as she looked around for her nephew, who was more of a son than anyone could ever be. May knew that Peter loved hiding and scaring her witless. He used to do that when he was younger. He would hide somewhere and then jump at her when she least expected it. He better not be doing the same thing now and yet she hoped he was because his absence was telling of another conclusion. One that she did not want. Ever. And so she looked towards the one person who would know where Peter was, because Peter had to be okay. He had to be alive.

The haunted look in Tony's eyes as he and Pepper (she was holding his hand) approached May was all the answer she needed. Tears stung her eyes as she asked, "Where is he? Where's my baby?"

"May, I-"

May Parker didn't even need to hear the remaining sentence as the sound of her own heartbeat drowned out everything else. She started to feel breathless and everything was hazy. The sounds and colors muted around her and she was helpless to do anything other than stare at Stark, who was still saying something. Why was he saying something? What was he saying? May mechanically nodded slightly when Stark stopped speaking. Her chest was aching as her heartbeat showed no signs of slowing down and everything was slowly losing sense.

"May?" asked Tony as he stared at the younger woman.

"Tony…" Pepper said, moving towards the shocked lady.

"Yeah, I know." Tony said, taking off his hoodie and draping it around the lady. He then put his arm around her and steered her inside. He knew that the minute she would recover from the shock, she wouldn't want anything to do with him and he was okay with that, but as long as he could help her, he would.

By the time Tony and Pepper had gotten May settled on the couch in the living room, she was finally starting to come around the initial shock and she stared at Tony and whispered a single word, "Peter?"

The billionaire crouched in front of the aunt and told her everything that had happened and everyone else listened intently and silently as Tony talked of the kid who was now lost to them. They knew that he wasn't telling everything because at times he would pause or switch his words too fast that had they not known him from before, they too would have been fooled into thinking that Tony told the whole story.

Pepper gently took off May's glasses as tears rapidly flew down her cheeks in a silent cry and the words finally registered in her brain. May snatched her hands away from Stark's grasp and hugged herself tightly, her frame now hunched over as she tried to get back some degree of control over herself. But Peter had been her only crutch in life and to lose him when Ben's death was still fresh in her mind, was mind numbing in the least and soul crushing at most.

Tony schooled his hurt look and glanced at Pepper, who nodded slightly at him. The two, after working and being in love for so long, no longer had any need for words and slight gestures could convey a lot of meaning. That was how he knew that Pep would take care of May and he made his way out of the room, without looking at anyone. As much as he loved his friends, he hoped that they had the sense to leave him alone for some time. He would not be responsible if he punched someone in the face, with the way he was feeling right now.

After the whole Afghanistan thing and especially Yinsen, Tony had never thought that he could feel this way ever again and for most of the time, he hadn't. Not even when he fought against Cap and Bucky. But now – now he felt worse, if that was even possible. The crushing feeling that he had felt when Peter had disappeared from his arms, was back. With a vengeance. So lost he was in his own thoughts, that he failed to notice the kids peeping out of the kitchen as he made his way down the hallway.

Ever since Tony could remember, whenever he was upset, over anything, he would always end up in his safe space – his lab. It had happened every time he and his father used to get into a fight and he would end up retreating to the attic, which he had converted into his own workspace. It had happened when he had opened the door to find cops and Aunt Peggy telling him that he was all alone in the world and it happened every single time he stressed out over anything, small or big. So it was no surprise to him when he found himself inside his lab.

Tony wiped the few stray tears and breathed calmly as FRIDAY switched on the lights in the lab, which extended into his private garage. The machines, the equipment, the plans scattered around the room were grounding him to reality and he breathed easier as he stepped further into the lab. He had barely made it to his workstation when the sounds of rushing wheels made him turn around just in time to spot Dummy, Butterfingers and You speeding towards him.

"Welcome home, boss." FRIDAY's relieved voice came over the speakers and Tony let himself smile a little.

"Thanks, Fri." Tony huffed a little as he saw Butterfingers hit Dummy with his clawed 'arm'. "Easy there, kids!"

"Dummy!" Tony exclaimed with a laugh as Dummy bumped into Tony, so not on accident and Tony patted the extended claw. Satisfied with Tony's response, the invention rushed over to the mini fridge in the corner, while Butterfingers and You beeped and chirped in excitement at Tony's presence.

"They have been very worried about you, Sir. To the point that they forgot to charge themselves. Ms. Pepper had to force them." FRIDAY informed and the three beeped indignantly at the A.I. that ran the house at being ratted out.

"Boys!" Tony admonished as he all but collapsed in his chair. He tried to maintain a mock disappointed look but between Butterfingers and You still zooming happily around him and Dummy offering him a can of soda, his resolve broke down and he chuckled at their antics.

"And what about you, Fri? Did you miss me?" asked Tony as he sipped the soda.

"Obviously, sir. Now before you change the topic, I would like to inform you, in case you haven't noticed, or remind you, in case you seem to have forgotten, that you have a slightly fatal wound in your side." FRIDAY said in a no nonsense tone that Tony was sure she had picked up from Pepper. And that was also how he knew that FRIDAY had been more than affected at his disappearance. At times like these, she reminded him so much of JARVIS that it would leave him reeling from the onslaught of feelings.

"Fatal?" Pepper's shocked voice came from the lab entrance as she leveled a look at Tony's abdomen. Now that she was no longer feeling the high of having him back from another suicidal mission, she could finally get to take care of him. "How fatal is slightly fatal, FRIDAY?"

"It's nothing…" Tony tried to brush it off but between his concerned fiancé and his concerned A.I.s, he knew there was no getting out of it. He had been on the losing end of this same battle many, many times.

"It could have been fatal if sir had not bothered to try and patch it up with the nanotech of his suit. Now it would only require simple dressing up." FRIDAY replied as she displayed the results of Tony's full body scan on one of the screens.

Just then Dummy whizzed up to Pepper and handed her the first aid kit and Butterfinger pushed her towards Tony, who was being held down by You's arm.

"Wow! Just wow! I love how you all are ganging up on me." Tony said with a pout, even as he handed over the soda can to You and leaned back in the chair as Pepper neared him.

"How's May doing?" Tony asked as Pepper started to treat his wound. It wasn't fatal! FRIDAY was obviously exaggerating! Pepper had for far too long, treated his wounds that he either couldn't bother himself to attend to or had forgotten about completely and she had gotten scary good at dressing his wounds up. Hell, she could probably do it in her sleep, thought Tony as Pepper didn't even glance twice at the wound before starting to clean it, with Dummy acting as a nurse.

Sighing, the CEO replied, "Happy is taking care of her right now."

Tony nodded and frowned. "Okay two quick questions. One: how long have I been gone for and two: why the hell is everyone dressed in formals? I mean I'm pretty sure I saw Clint wearing a tie. The guy won't wear a tie for just anything."

Pepper explained everything that had happened in his absence as she finished up the dressing and Tony for once listened without interrupting, although he did visibly brighten at Justin Clampton's mention, which Pepper noticed.

"Okay, what did you do?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Tony! I know that look. That's your I-know-something-that-no-one-else-does look."

"I always know something that no one else does. I'm a genius!"

"Tony!"

It was the glare that she was giving him, that finally broke Tony into a grin and he said, "Clampton's one of my people. I mean, not my people as in _my_ people, but he is…"

"Got it." Pepper said with a grin. Tony rarely ever got excited over people in such a way. This Clampton must have been one of the few politician types that Tony could stand and if he was working towards getting rid of Ross, then all the better.

"Hey mechanic!" said a small voice from the lab entrance.

"Kid?" Tony looked at the teen standing at the entrance and his sister standing a bit behind him, staring at You in wonder. There were four other children behind those two, all except the youngest, staring at the lab in wonder. Tony recognized three of them as the Barton clan or better known as 'Small Agents'. The last child, a brunette of around ten or eleven, Tony recognized from one of the files he had on the Avengers' allies. She must be Ant-Man's daughter. He was the only one who had any association with a child.

"How did you all get here?" Tony asked as he and Pepper made their way to the kids.

"Followed you, duh!"

"Duh." Tony repeated drily and then grinned as Jo looked curiously at the bots. Actually, by now all of the kids were looking at the bots, who were circling the kids, either in inspection of them or trying to figure them out.

"Yeah, old man, you gotta start to notice who is following you." Harley said with a grin and Pepper smiled as she realized that that was the first time the boy had smiled since he came to the compound.

"Sure thing. You gonna gimme tips now?" Tony said as he ruffled his and Jo's hair.

"Hey! Not the hair!" Jo shrieked, trying to get out of Tony's range, while Harley made a face at Tony and set his hair again.

"Why not?" Harley replied cheekily as Tony bent down to high five a grinning Nate and Cooper and Lila, who were trying to duck Dummy's arm.

Tony had visited Clint a couple of times during the house arrest. At first the things had been strained between the two and Tony had left almost as soon as he had come to meet them. But the last two times he had visited the family, things had started to get better. It might have been that Clint wanted to talk to a new face every now and then or that Tony had offered the entire Stark power for the family's protection that finally won Clint over, but it had happened and Tony was glad for it. They were still not back to being the buddies that they had once been, but their relationship was at least on the mend and Clint had at the least given Tony a chance to hear things from his side too. In any case, Tony had ended up getting pretty chummy with the mischievous kids and he could see how Cooper would turn out to be like Clint whereas Lila was showing clear signs of Natasha-worship, which had Tony being a teeny-tiny bit scared of the future Lila. Nate was still young but was as mischievous as his siblings. The house arrest, even though had given Clint cabin fever, was pretty good for his relationship with his kids, in the sense that at least he was getting to spend time with them, even with the threat of the feds beating down his door once a week. The only one who was still more or less miffed with Tony was Laura, but Tony had accepted her anger at him. His job was to make sure that the accords got better and his friends were released, and not to make sure that everyone was always happy. That would be a losing battle and Tony never took up something he knew he couldn't do.

He turned to look at Cassandra Lang and introduced himself. She was still looking at the bots, especially Butterfingers who was hovering around her.

"Are they like Lexi and Anthony II?" Cassie asked, referring to the bots.

"Who now?"

"My ants."

"She has giant ants. Like giant, like bigger than us." Harley said excitedly.

"Bigger than daddy, actually." Cassie said with pride.

"How cool is that?" Cooper asked with a huge grin.

"I want giant ants!" Lila said and then added, "Actually, I want a giant puppy and a chicken and a cow."

"We are not getting giant anything." Barton said as he and Scott walked towards the kids. The two had left to search for the kids when FRIDAY announced that Justin Clampton would be making an appearance in some time. The A.I. had not informed Tony of the same because she didn't want to disturb her boss' happy time.

"Why not?" Cooper asked with a pout.

"Because I am not Ant-Man, okay?" Clint said with a sigh. He had been having this particular discussion ever since the kids found out that Cassie had giant ants, which was like only a few hours ago, but it felt a lifetime to him. Turning to Scott, he asked, "You just had to get her giant ants, didn't you?"

Scott shrugged and said, "One was an accident and the other was an escape strategy. She wanted to keep them."

"Then can we get a hawk?" Lila asked, interrupting the adults.

"You walked right into that one." Tony laughed and clapped Clint's back in greeting and nodded at Scott, who was still wary of a Stark.

Clint ignored the kids and informed Tony and Pepper of Justin's impending arrival. Soon the adults herded the kids into another room and Tony went to get ready. If the Avengers were making an appearance, he was going, whether anyone wanted him to or not.


	9. Chapter 9

**(A/N - Hey guys! So I know this is a bit behind schedule but only cuz I haven't been keeping well and then there was a pretty important festival in between all the crazy that is my life currently. Anyways, lemme know how you find the chapter. :D  
Also, my next update is probably going to be in December because I have exams coming up and I'll get back to writing once I am done with that.)**

 ** _CHAPTER 9_**

 _Location: Svartalfheim_

The Valkyrie took a deep breath and splashed the naturally cool water on her face in an attempt to chase her sleep away. She was kneeling next to the pool of groundwater that they all had found somewhere towards the back of the cave that the refuges had set up camp in. Some of the older Asgardians had managed to separate the water pool into two portions – one for drinking and one for washing. The pool wasn't big enough for the use of hundred some people but they had been managing pretty well for now. She wondered for how long this would continue, for how long the people would cooperate with each other before the fights erupted. She hoped that their message reached Vanaheim or Alfheim before that happened.

One day, Brunn thought as she wiped her face with a clean portion of her otherwise dirty cape. It had been one whole day since they were stranded on this stupid planet. Normally, she wouldn't have cared. After all, one day wasn't all that long. But now, with no food or trained people or any feasible transportation, she didn't know for how long they all could hold out. For now everyone was being cooperative and cordial to one another, but she had seen what such situations could do. The people had still not come to terms with their fate and she dreaded the moment that happened.

A shrill cry brought her out of her reverie and she snapped her head up, looking around for danger. What she found was a young girl, barely a millennia old, holding a little child in her arms. A crying child. The absence of danger did nothing to soothe the warrior. She would prefer fights over crying babies any day. Not that she didn't have experience with crying babies, but she no longer had the patience for it.

"Sorry," mumbled the girl as she rocked the baby, trying to get him/her to sleep.

Brunnhilde nodded her acknowledgement and the girl took it as an invitation to make small talk.

"Birger," the girl hoisted the baby at that and Brunn smiled slightly at the crying boy, "he is the youngest in the family. He was born last year and he just cannot stop crying. Father was the only one who could get him to settle down but now…" the girl trailed off and cleared her throat.

"Have you fed him something?" Brunn asked, thinking about what kind of baby food they could have. Nothing came to her mind.

"Yes, one of the mothers out there fed him. I am Iona, by the way."

"Brunnhilde." With that she nodded and walked towards the front of the cave. The crying of the child was getting on her nerves now.

"I… sorry, umm… I heard that we sent messages to Alfheim and Vanaheim?"

"Yes, we did. Got any family over there?" Brunn asked, turning to face the blond haired girl once again.

"My mother and oldest brother. They were visiting my aunt on Alfheim." Iona said in relief and went back to handling her brother, who had achieved a previously unknown level of shrillness.

Taking the chance, Brunn quickly exited from there and walked down the somewhat dark tunnel to reach the front of the cave. The seiðkona, Eda had left some glowing balls of light in the tunnel to light it up but even that was not enough. At least the pool area had natural light filtering from the holes in the ceiling of the cave. The same went for the front room.

She leaned against the wall as she looked at the people scattered around the cave. At least the double shift was in effect. Some time back, Korg had suggested that they all take shifts and rest and so far it was successful. The ones who were resting were relaxed in the knowledge that there were others who could protect them while they slumbered.

The half that was sleeping had shifted to the back of the room, leaving enough space for someone to come and go to the pool area. The other half that included most of the Sakaarians were either sitting in circles and chatting or loitering around the cave. There was one group of girls that she assumed was the class of seiðkonur, who were sitting in a circle and talking and practicing their art. Another group containing mostly of men and some women were at the front of the cave, looking through the crates of weapons that they had brought back from the ship graveyard. Yet another smaller group was sitting in and around the skiff that was parked at the cave's entrance. They all seemed to be engrossed in listening to the Nine Realms Channel.

She felt someone's gaze on her and looked around till she found Korg waving one rocky arm at her, signaling her to join him. The Kronan had Miek draped over his one arm as usual and she wondered whether he ever tired of doing that. But considering that Korg was far more innocent and too pure a soul than anyone she had ever met, he probably wouldn't have even registered something like that.

"Scrapper 142!" Korg greeted as she neared him and his enthusiasm reminded her of Thor. He had been pretty enthusiastic and happy about things when he hadn't been brooding about the future.

"I thought you were supposed to be sleeping. Don't worry, I have got everything under control."

Brunn shrugged and said, "I told you call me Brunn. I slept for some time and don't want to sleep anymore. Anything interesting going on here?" She looked at the Sakaarians sitting and playing some sort of game with rocks. She wondered if those rocks belonged to Korg.

"We are just playing a game of 'Break the Tower'. Do you want to join?"

"No thanks." Brunn said. She was familiar with the game. It was the favorite pastime of the gladiators. It was a boring game but she guessed that they didn't really care considering that they would only survive for a few days before being killed in the Grandmaster's game. She wondered what that old man was up to. Whether he still lived or not. He better had died. He was enough of a creep to deserve death, which probably meant that he was still alive, cuz slimy people like him always survived any situation. At least Topaz was dead. Small comforts.

The clatter of swords and blades brought her attention to the group that was rummaging through the weapons crate. She made her way towards them in irritation. What did they think they were doing? Hardly any of them looked like seasoned warriors. She wasn't in the mood to treat wounded people because of their own foolhardy ways. Not to mention that they didn't have any equipment to treat people.

"What are you doing?" she snapped at the group as she neared them.

"Um… sorry, just going through the weapons we have." Magna said as she picked up the swords. At Brunn's questioning look, she elaborated, "Most of us have gone through simple fighting techniques as is… was mandatory on Asgard. We thought we could, you know, build up on that and learn to fight more."

A man, Raul, she remembered, nodded and said, "It would give us something to do and wherever we end up, we would need to know how to defend ourselves. None of us are trained warriors except for you and few of the Einherjar who were on leave during the attack or came to protect us."

"Fine," the Valkyrie nodded, "you do that. Just don't kill each other and stay away from the blasters!" She looked pointedly at the few who were holding the blasters. As the two boys who had picked up the blasters, kept them back, she explained, "Dark Elves' technology is very sensitive to touch. You have to be careful when you use them. Those blasters could tear through almost any metal known to us."

"And we don't want that sort of trouble over here." Magna said pointedly.

Brunn suppressed a smile as the two boys looked ashamed and asked Magna, "Are you the eldest of the children here?"

"Yes, along with Kari and Tyra." Magna pointed at a tall girl with blue eyes and jet black hair, sitting in the middle of the circle that some of the kids had formed. "Tyra Unnsdottir. She is of my age, that is, nine hundred and ninety four years old. Kari is slightly younger at nine hundred and one and we have the two children of Volstagg the Valiant. They are somewhere in their eight hundreds. Everyone else is below six hundred, as far as I know."

"Alaric Volstaggson." A red haired boy stepped forward to introduce himself. He had been one of those who were looking at the swords. "And this is my sister, Gunnhild." He nodded towards a red haired, freckled girl, holding a sword in her hand.

Brunn nodded and smiled at them. "Well, carry on with your fighting or whatever. I'll go check on the others."

"Mmm actually," Gunnhild said with an impish grin, "we were sort of wondering whether you could help us in that."

"Excuse me?"

"You could train us in fighting. I mean you are _the Valkyrie_. There is no one over here who knows these things better than you."

"Right." Brunn pursed her lips and looked at the others. They all were looking expectantly at her and she barely stopped herself from groaning. This was not something she wanted to do. As much as training others excited her, she was sure it would also be too close a reminder of the days that she was trying to forget. As the leader of the Valkyries, it had been her duty to train the others and she wasn't in the mood for a trip down the memory lane. As it was, between Loki's cheap trick and the incessant questions of the children, she had remembered far more in the past few days than she had in the past century. The 'no' was on the tip of her tongue but somehow she couldn't find it in herself to disappoint the barely concealed excitement on the redhead's face and she found herself making a compromise.

"How about you all practice and show what you have got and I'll correct you?" Brunn suggested. It was the closest she could offer now to proper training.

"That's great!" Magna said excitedly, cutting off Gunnhild's reply which was probably some argument. "We'll let you know who all wants to join in this."

Brunnhilde smiled at Magna as she understood that the girl was helping her get out of the slightly uncomfortable situation. It looked like she understood far more than she let on. Good for her, Brunn thought as she walked away from the group. She joined Korg, who was now passing out some of the snacks to the children. She hoped that he was mindful of the fact that they had only a meager amount of foodstuff and sooner rather than later, they were going to run out of it. She spent the next few minutes helping him and Royd sort out the food situation.

It was some time later when the shift was changing and most of the people were awake and others were getting ready to retire, that Sol came running into the cave. She and Kari had been on the skiff for almost the entirety of the day.

"Brunn!" Sol panted as she skidded to a stop in front of the warrior. "You have to hear this. Come on!"

Without waiting to see if the Valkyrie followed, Sol ran towards the skiff. Brunn followed her and hoped that some sort of message would have come through, but was doubtful about it. Kari had told her that it would take some time for their own message to reach the other realms.

"…that have died the glorious death."

Those were the first words that Brunn heard from the broadcast and realized that they all were listening to the Nine Realms Channel. She quickly jumped on to the skiff as the meaning of the words sunk in. That was the Asgardian and Vanir prayer for the dead. Her heart thudded against her ribcage as she increased the volume. If this was what she thought it was, then everyone else also needed to hear it.

"It has been almost an hour since the final rites were carried out for all those we have lost today. The mass funeral was carried out in the capital city of Vanaheim, conducted by King Freyr, Princesses Frejya and Idunn. At the last minute, King Thor of Asgard, the new All-Father had attended the funeral…"

At that a cheer rose amongst the crowd as they celebrated the fact that their king still lived. It took a shrill whistle from Brunn to shut them up so they could listen properly to the remaining news.

"It has now been confirmed that Prince Loki of Asgard and gatekeeper, Heimdall, did not survive the attack on the ship that carried the people of Asgard. While their bodies are yet to be found, their rites have already been performed. In other news, King Thor has also confirmed the reason behind the mysterious dust that took away so many of our friends and family. The perpetrator behind this horrific crime was none other than the infamous Mad Titan Thanos. With the help of the ever elusive Infinity Stones, the Titan was able to wipe out half the life in the universe. King Thor, along with the famous but never seen heroes of Midgard and a few other allies are currently looking into this matter. Please stay tuned in to hear more about the Mad Titan Thanos."

There was absolute silence in the gathering as the news report droned on and on about the funeral and the feast that was still in progress. From their own personal experiences, they knew that the feast and the story telling that followed would go on till the early morning. Solemn, dirty faces looked at one another in search of comfort but found only the lost people that they were.

"Hey," Korg whispered to Brunnhilde as people started dispersing, either back to the cave or to roam around, lost in their own thoughts, "this Loki was the same guy who led us to your planet, right?"

"Yeah."

"Just checking. Great guy, little testy, but he led the revolution for us." Korg said with a shrug. "Too bad he died. He could have led another revolution. At least Thor's alive."

"Loki was Thor's brother." Brunn said as she finished saying the prayer in her head.

"That sucks. Not that they were brothers. No, that would be nice. I meant that he died." Korg said as he sat down next to her and Kari, who was comforting Sol and typing away furiously on the keyboard.

"What are you doing?" Brunn asked Kari, ignoring the rambling rock next to her.

"Trying to figure out just how far away we are from a satellite station. To be able to get the broadcast over here, there should be a station somewhere near us. Although, why they would put a station in a dead realm, is beyond my understanding."

"Probably to monitor the dead realm." Brunn deadpanned.

"I'll let you know if I… got it!" Kari exclaimed excitedly. "I've been trying to get this for so long. There is a satellite just beyond the black hole. It's far away though, so that it doesn't come too close in contact with the black hole."

"Okay, so we have the satellite location. What will that do for us?" Sol asked as she looked at the screen displaying some random numbers that she assumed were the satellite details.

"That's the tricky part." Kari said. "If we can get to the satellite, I could tamper enough with it to set off an alarm. All of the satellites are linked to Asgard and in absence of Asgard's support, Vanaheim. Once the alarm goes off, you can be sure that they would send someone to come to check it out. That would probably be faster than waiting for our message to hopefully reach them and then waiting for their message to reach us."

"But you cannot do this from here?" Brunn asked, pointing to the keyboard.

"No." Kari shook his head. "All of the satellites are heavily protected to ensure that no one can tamper with them. You need physical passcodes and presence to enter the satellites."

"And you have these passcodes?" Sol asked incredulously. "You hadn't even joined the department yet."

"Yeah, but I did work for ten years on one of the satellites for my training. I know the emergency override code. It won't be the same for this satellite but I can work on it or else I can set off an 'Intruder Alarm'. Although that should be something of a last resort."

"And how do you suppose we reach there?" Brunnhilde asked, not unkindly but still skeptical of the plan.

"The Dark Elves' ships." Kari replied. "You said that we found one that was in working condition but didn't have enough fuel. If we could find some other ships that contain fuel, we could siphon the fuel. We could even carry the skiff with us because those ships look big enough to carry a skiff…"

Brunn chuckled at the excited look on the boy's face and asked, "How long have you been planning this?"

"Quite some time." Kari admitted sheepishly. "I feel that this is our best shot right now."

"Alright," she nodded and returned the grin that was on Kari's face.

 _Location: Mid-Point, Bottom of the Universe_

With his eyes closed, he could almost imagine a larger-than-life tree in front of him or rather, only the trunk of the tree, but the branches were not far behind, spread all over the universe, all interconnected and all thrumming with life. The energy force gleamed white for it encased all color, all life, everything in the universe, within it. It was all for the taking, if only one knew how to take it.

Loki nudged a tiny piece of his seiðr in the vast shining trunk. He could almost see his green standing out in the surrounding white. He remembered his first few lessons with his mother when his seiðr had started to act out because he couldn't control it and after he had driven away every tutor either through his sharp words or his stubborn nature to do whatever he wanted to do. He remembered her telling him that all seiðr came from one central location but only a few could tap into that power and manipulate it to create magic. The physical manifestation of seiðr would always be a unique color even if it did not seem so to the naked eye. It was a mark of differentiation, of one's own identity in the midst of a vast sea of other seiðr-users. That color could never change. He remembered fondly as his mother had showed him her own golden-yellowish color and had encouraged him to mix his green with it. The result had been spectacular, both visually and to feel. Frigga had then told him of the theory of how all colors would make white, but that there were infinite colors and only the center of all seiðr would ever be white. He still couldn't believe that he was now standing in front of the very center that he would often dream of finding.

He had discovered his wanderlust at quite a young age, namely when he had crawled out of his nursery in the middle of the night to find his mother, just because he couldn't sleep. He had been unable to talk or see far away items very clearly back then, but he knew that restlessness within him had to be quenched and he had somehow managed to crawl around with such vigor that even the guard who had finally found him, had been surprised by his excitement. Obviously, Loki personally didn't remember this incident. He was far too small for such a feat, but he had often had Odin and Frigga recount the tale so many times that he could almost picture it in his mind. This wanderlust had often given his adoptive parents quite a headache when he had grown up and especially when he had discovered portals and later on world-walking. He still remembered the first time he had attempted to use the pathways between the worlds to travel.

Loki had been a few centuries old and had been practicing a new spell with his mother in the gardens when he had felt a thrum of energy. Normally he used to ignore such things for they weren't very common and would disappear as soon as they appeared. But this time was different. He could feel it, in the way the energy only kept building up, in the way that everything was suddenly far brighter than he remembered them to be. He had soon dropped his half-perfected spell in favor of finding the source of this energy. He had walked halfway across the garden before he found the perfect spot and then had spent almost an hour trying to focus on the energy. All the while, Frigga had patiently waited for him to finish, already knowing what he had discovered. It took him an embarrassingly long time to get a hold of the energy, but when he had gotten a hold of it, he let it pull him up. The feeling of seiðr coursing through him had been so overwhelming that he had lost sense of what he was doing and ended up falling on the ground and breaking his ankle. Such was the height he had fallen from.

Even then, Frigga had patiently smiled at him and healed his ankle. She then explained about the pathways and how a few could actually sense them and even fewer could use them. She was one of the small percentile who could use the pathways, although not for long and not for very faraway places. It was then that he had decided to hone this skill and had spent almost half a year, falling from varying heights before he got a hold of it. The first time he attempted to travel in that manner, he had ended up passing out for three entire days. But he persisted and he prevailed.

 _Have I made you proud?_ , the question echoed in his head and for the first time Loki thought that maybe Frigga would have actually been proud of where exactly her son, albeit adopted, stood at that very moment. Although he didn't imagine her being proud of how he got there. On the contrary she would have yelled at him for getting himself killed, again.

He averted his mind from thoughts of his deceased mother. It would do him no good to try and remember her time and time again. He had been trying to get rid of the habit of talking to his mother's memories in his head. Not a healthy way of coping with her untimely death, he knew that but he could not get himself to let go of her. So he concentrated on the green blip in the white expanse and for the first time he wasn't standing out, for the first time he realized that he fit right in.

Slowly withdrawing himself from the heady experience of the energy of the pathways, Loki thought about all the information he had been provided with. He had learnt a lot more about the stones in the past few hours than he had in the past few years and it all left him reeling with ideas and theories and what-ifs. He took a calming breath to assemble his thoughts and was grateful that none of the other Asgardians were in the room with him. Some time back, they had finally had enough of the room and left to return to the resting area they had all been in some time back. The celestials, barring Infinity, had also left for whatever it was that they did. Loki was grateful that it was Infinity who had stayed back with him in the room. He felt the most comfortable with her, perhaps due to his close relationship with the space stone, but whatever the reason, her presence was soothing.

Loki turned to face her, only to find her already staring at him. He decided to ask a question that had puzzled him for some time now and hopefully she would be more inclined to give a straightforward answer than her companions.

"If I may ask a question?" Loki asked politely and waited for her acknowledgment. "Why did Eternity say that my method of world-walking was unheard of? I am certain that I could not be the only the one who could do such a thing."

"You are and you are not." Infinity said with a shrug. "As in, you are not the first one who could use the center directly to travel the paths. But that is in the multiverse. In this universe, you are actually the first, which is surprising as this universe is still far younger than many others out there and we see this type of talent only in the oldest ones."

"As for why Eternity said what he did, well, I cannot say I am entirely sure of why he does things that he does but he does like his drama and I suppose he thinks that saying something like that would incline your friends to follow you."

"He is probably wrong then." Loki said as he walked away from the center.

"Maybe, maybe not. Give it sometime. I told you there is a good reason why those five were chosen. Trust that."

Loki childishly frowned and shrugged and moved on to the next question.

"Why are all of you interested?" Loki asked with a skeptical look in his eyes. "In all of this. In getting the stones back? It could not just be that the soul stone would give away under the strain of the energy in it and destroy half the universe. I suppose you are already used to creating and destroying universes."

The celestial grinned at Loki, making him nervous. "I knew you would ask this question. Eternity owes me the rights to the creation of next universe."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Nothing, nothing. Now, as to answer your question. Hmm. It is more or less personal interests for us rather than the destruction of the universe. We have Entropy and Death doing that on a regular basis."

"Well, Death has already explained why she is interested in getting the stones back. The souls didn't go to her and she is rightfully annoyed. For Tivan, the Collector, he is more interested in vengeance. You see, when he realized that all of the stones were in the same universe, he too was interested in adding them to his collection. Obviously, not permanently. He would gotten them together and then they would have separated on their own but his ego would have been stroked. So, when he received the reality stone, he was overjoyed. His objective was getting fulfilled on its own and so he arranged for the power stone to be brought to him but when the power stone was taken away after that little mishap, he was annoyed but when the reality stone was taken away by Thanos and that too after destroying every other collection that he had, Tivan was rightfully angered. That is his reason."

Loki nodded in understanding. He knew the Collector was obsessed about his collection, even more so than the All-Father had been about his vault. That was the main reason why he had asked for the Reality Stone to be given to him for he would guard it with his life.

"As for En Dwi or as you know him, the Grandmaster, well, he is obsessed with his games."

"Verily."

Infinity chuckled and continued, "His favorite type involves real people and that is his reason. You see, he enjoys the game of chess, but his version involves real people. He uses them and moves them around like pawns in a game. He controls it all, but with what Thanos did, he lost that control and he lost half of his pawns."

"And now he wants to take Thanos' game away from him?"

"Yes. As for Eternity and I, we both do not like how the stones were used and with the use of gauntlet, the natural progression of the stones has been hindered. We just want to start the cycle again."

"And Entropy?"

"Oh, he doesn't really care but we forced him to be here. Emotional blackmail is a powerful tool, especially among family."

Loki nodded his agreement and a small smile graced his face as he thought of the hundreds of times he had managed to talk Thor into or out of things due to emotional blackmail.

"There are other celestials out there, but most of them relocated to other universes when the stones came into play. They usually do that. Now that you know of our reasons, do tell yours. Are you in or out?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Obviously."

Loki got a faraway look in his eyes as he thought about his early days under Thanos' minions and said solemnly, "I made a vow to myself." He looked at Infinity and promised, "You will get your stones back."

X-X-X

"I don't trust this. I don't like any of this. Whatever this is." Sif said the second all five of them were secure inside the resting area.

"I still don't understand. How did we even get here?" Volstagg asked as he moved towards the cart in the corner of the room that contained snacks. "One moment we are being killed by some locked away sister of Thor and the next, we are talking about cosmic beings and Infinity Stones and Titans destroying half the universe."

"And Loki being important enough to right the wrongs." Hogun added.

"Exactly!" Sif said, flopping down on a couch, her arms crossed over her abdomen and a scowl on her face.

"Do you think he can really do all the things they said he can?" Volstagg asked, munching on some otherworldly food.

"Maybe." Fandral said with a shrug. "Do they have any reason to lie?"

"So what?" Sif asked in exasperation. "We are just supposed to blindly trust Loki now?"

Heimdall made a noise of agreement and drew Sif's ire towards himself.

"Heimdall! Do not tell me that you trust him! Not after all that he did to us. To Thor!"

"Trust Loki?" Heimdall repeated as he sat down on a chair. "I do not trust Loki nor will it be wise to do so. I doubt that even Loki can trust himself. Such has been his nature since his childhood. But I do believe that he has his own ideals and I do not see him at any point allowing such atrocity to exist." The all seeing gatekeeper said, referring to Thanos' work.

"He said that he worked with this Thanos." Hogun pointed out.

"He also said that he had a plan to stop Thanos from getting the stones." Volstagg countered.

Sif nodded and pondered, "So, what is the truth? Did he work with Thanos or did he want to stop Thanos?"

"Or maybe he double crossed Thanos. Loki does that." Fandral commented.

"Or perhaps they all are true." Heimdall said.

"Gatekeeper, what do you know that we do not?" Sif asked, annoyed by Heimdall's arguments in favor of Loki.

"Many things." Heimdall commented cheekily. "But above them all, I do not believe Loki to be the epitome of evil like you do."

"I do not!"

"Sif, you kind of do." Volstagg said in between bites.

Enraged, Sif yelled, "Well, let me refresh your memories. Loki took over the throne of Asgard, he killed Thor when Thor was a mortal, he tried to destroy Jotunheim, he tried to kill Thor again, he then tried to take over Midgard and killed hundreds over there, then he faked his death and took over Asgard under the guise of All-Father. Do you want me to continue?"

Everything was quiet for some time as they all digested Sif's words. Then Heimdall broke the silence and commented, "He saved Asgard from certain death. We were on the Bifrost, a couple hundred survivors and me. Thor, his Midgardian friend and the Valkyrie were fighting Hela's army. It did not seem that they would win for long and that would have been fine had we had somewhere to go, but there was no place that we could go to. Behind us was Hela and her army and in front of us, the remainder of her army. Even with the sword, I could not have activated the Bifrost and gotten everyone to safety. It was a lost cause and we were losing hope. That was when Loki appeared with a spaceship and reinforcements. He ordered everyone on the ship while he and the others fought off the army. He started Ragnarok on Thor's orders for it was the only way to ensure Hela's death."

"Yes, he has done horrible things before but he also assisted us when we needed help. Loki always has had his own agendas, but he does value somethings and even though I do not know of these things, I do know that he would help out when we need help. He always has. That is why I am willing to follow him on this path."

"One good deed does not wipe out all the others." Fandral said with a frown.

"'Tis true that he has betrayed us far more than he has aided us." Volstagg added.

"Is it?" Heimdall asked. "If I do remember correctly and unless my sight has failed me, Loki had always aided all of you on your little adventures. You may not have seen it, but I did. He would cover your backs and protect you whenever you had a weak side."

"We do not need protection in a battle." Sif spat. "And we have no weak side."

"You always have an opening on your left." Hogun commented nonchalantly. "Fandral hardly ever pays attention to his right. Volstagg ignores the threats coming from the left behind him and I do the same for my right side. Thor hardly covers his back."

"Because we do it for each other."

"No, Sif." Hogun said gravely. "We covered Thor's back for him and Loki used to cover ours. I started paying attention to that when we started going out to restore peace after Loki's imprisonment. That had been the reason why we started getting injured more and more."

"Alright, let's say that I believe you and that Loki has aided us as much as he has betrayed us, what does that mean for our current situation?" Sif asked sourly, not wanting to continue the line of conversation anymore. "We still cannot trust him and in dangerous quests like these, there needs to be ultimate trust within the group. I can trust you all to watch my back, but Loki? He is far likely to leave us for dead than he is to help us."

"And you are likely to do the same to me." Loki said from where he was leaning against the door jamb. "You should really learn how to talk softly if you do not want someone to listen in."

"How long have you been there?" Sif growled at the smug god.

"Not long enough, apparently."

"Give us a reason to trust you." Fandral asked solemnly, hoping that his old friend would do at least that much.

Loki shrugged as he came into the room and said, "Never, ever trust someone, Fandral." He looked at the frowns on everyone's face and sighed. He wished he had never agreed with Infinity for giving them a chance. Reminding himself that he only did this because it might aid him later on, he said, "But if you do want a reason to follow me into this… quest, as you call it, know this, I would not betray you or leave you for dead until I deliver you to Thor. You have my word."

That stopped any protests on his companions' lips. They knew that Loki had never once broken his word and though that didn't calm the warriors any, it did make them reconsider their position. And if they got to go to Thor in all of this, then they would take the risk.

"I thought we had to go to fight Thanos." Fandral said.

Loki slowly peeled a fruit he picked up from the cart that Volstagg was raiding, before answering, "We make a detour. I drop you off with Thor and you can all rejoice your reunion and I will go ahead."

"To fight Thanos? On your own?" Hogun asked in confusion.

Loki gave him a condescending look and said, "No, to collect information. No one in their right mind would go against Thanos on their own."

"Yes, and your mind is sound." Sif said sarcastically, stealing a piece of fruit that Loki had cut out.

Loki frowned at her and ignored her comment. He was not in a mood to talk about the state of his mind. He still was not sure of that himself. He had slowly been healing himself while ruling over Asgard for the past years but thanks to his busy schedule, he had only been able to reverse so much of the damage that had been inflicted upon him. He only hoped that his death and subsequent revival had been akin to setting him as good as new but he was not so sure. While his body may have been healed, he could feel his mind reverting to its disarrayed state. It seemed that the longer he was alive, the more he was going back to how he had been. Well, as long as his seiðr didn't go back to the pitiful state it had been in, he would be able to manage.

"What information do you require and why?" Volstagg asked. "We pick Thor up and go fight Thanos. Just like old times."

Loki sighed and said, "This is not some childish adventure that Thor thought up in a haze of rage or in drunken stupor. We cannot just go barging in, axe and swords swinging, with no regard to anything. This is something that no one is ever prepared for and we need to be prepared."

"If you think that we are going to let you go anywhere off on your own, then you are mistaken, old friend." Hogun said in a grim voice.

"Hogun's right. How are we to know that you would not just go off somewhere to hide until this all blows over?" Sif added.

Loki rolled his eyes and said, "Believe what you will. I do not care. That is my offer, take it or leave it. You have no other option."

They all looked at each other as Loki finished the last of his fruit and stood up, looking at them in disinterest.

"Fine." Sif agreed with his terms. She was going to have to later figure out how to accompany him further ahead. After all, they had gotten their orders from the celestials themselves. They had been brought to life for this purpose and she was going to follow that order. Like Hel, she would let Loki go off somewhere on his own. He was unpredictable and he had once worked with Thanos. Who was to say that he wouldn't go and inform the Titan of the latest happenings?

"Then, shall we start?" Loki asked with that annoyingly polite smile of his that gave them all goosebumps, even Heimdall.

"So," asked Fandral, as they all stood up, "how do we exactly get out of here? Do we have like a spaceship or something?"

Loki sighed in annoyance and said, "No, you fool. You have something better. You have me or were you not listening to whatever had been explained downstairs?" Without waiting for a reply, Loki instructed, "Now huddle together, hold hands and do not let go under any circumstance. Unless of course you are in the mood for a painful death by the hands of the universe."


	10. Chapter 10

**(A/N - I'm back! Finally! It's been ages since I've been here. Here's a chapter for you guys focusing on Loki :D Lemme know how you all find it.)**

 ** _CHAPTER 10_**

 _Location: Various Planets_

Loki kept walking the second his legs touched solid ground and looked around the planet they had ended up on. Behind him, he could hear Fandral and Volstagg's shouts of surprise as they fell down on the ground, while the others stumbled and fell on top of them.

"My toes!" Fandral squeaked. "Sif, get off me."

"Leave my hand, you imbecile!" Sif ordered and managed to get her hand out of his grasp before getting up and stepping on Fandral's feet once again in order to regain her balance. She noticed that Loki was the only one who was upright and went to join him while the others picked themselves up.

"What was that?" she asked in anger.

"What was what?" Loki raised a brow at her before going back to looking at their surroundings. They had ended up somewhere on the outskirts of a forest filled with giant trees, far bigger than any other tree he had ever encountered. In front of them was an open area that resembled some sort of a haphazard market place. Aliens of all colors, shapes and sizes roamed the market place. The prince could identify a few species from his time travelling and on Sakaar but most were unknown to him.

"That…" Sif said, pointing at the other warriors.

"You were supposed to keep walking." Loki said in a bored tone, not bothering to look at her or the others and started walking towards the market place, knowing that the others would follow. "We were travelling at a high speed on the pathways, even if it did not feel like that. You were supposed to keep walking to slow down naturally."

"You could have told us that beforehand." Hogun grumbled but didn't notice the playful smirk on Loki's face. "Where are we, anyway?"

"Let's find out, shall we?" Loki said as they neared the market place and avoided some old lady (at least he thinks it was a lady) selling fruits. From past experience, he knew not to tangle with the hawkers, especially on unknown planets. He told as much to the others, who thankfully didn't question him much.

"How can you not know where we are?" Fandral asked, as they all huddled near an automated information booth.

The green eyed prince sighed in exasperation and explained, "I have not travelled to this side of the universe before. Using the pathways is like travelling on a road, unless you already know the road and the area, you cannot know where you will reach. I only stopped here because there was a break in the pathways and this was the closest planet. Also, I did not know for how long Volstagg could continue without throwing up." He didn't mention that he could not travel for a long time or distance without taking any break as the travelling was essentially done by using up his own energy. Such sensible things should be understandable to the group but he didn't want to point out a weakness on his behalf.

"I do feel queasy." Volstagg muttered, clutching the side of the information panel that Loki was messing around with.

"I cannot see where we are." Heimdall said in his usual monotonous voice.

"Energy of the pathways covers your sight." Loki explained distractedly as he read the information on the panel.

"That is how you manage to hide yourself from me." Heimdall said as realization dawned on him.

"Can you even read that?" Sif asked as she pointed to the weird runes and designs on the panel.

"Yes, I used to travel around. This is one of the selected universal languages and most species know at least how to read or write it. So I learnt it. It's not common in the nine so the All-Speak cannot translate it."

"This planet is called Paramatar. It is a hub space port. We should leave soon. This planet is prone to…" Loki trailed off as an explosion blew up a shop somewhere to their right. "…that."

"Don't draw your weapons." Loki ordered in a hiss and slid the panel back into its place. "Let us leave."

"Leave a fight?" Volstagg asked incredulously.

"Yes, leave a fight." Loki rolled his eyes. "This is not our fight and I rather not get into trouble right now. This planet is filled with bandits and mercenaries and all sort of low life."

"Don't be a coward!" Fandral said, looking at interest at the fist fight that had broken out in front of them.

Loki rounded up on Fandral and glared at him. As it is, he was regretting taking these idiots with him. Why did he have to agree with Infinity? They better be of some use to him.

"This is not about being a coward. This is about being smart. You will walk away or else I am leaving you here. The same goes for all of you. Find your own way back to Thor."

With that Loki walked away, leaving the others to sigh and follow him.

A few minutes later, they all found themselves near an almost empty parking lot, containing a few hovercrafts and such other vehicles. The sounds of the fighting which had now escalated to lasers and blasters, could still be heard even though they were pretty far away from the market place. Volstagg and Fandral were looking longingly in the direction of the sounds. It had been far too long since they were involved in a decent fight. Hogun and Sif were keeping an eye on Loki, who was doing a pretty good impression of Heimdall standing at the Observatory. He was standing still and looking at nothing in particular and yet it felt like he could see something that none of them could. Heimdall, too was in the same stance, albeit a bit more confused than Loki.

Sif involuntarily shuddered as she thought about the journey through the pathways. It had felt like one of her trips with Thor and Loki when they were young and had managed to commandeer a skiff and Loki had dared Thor to fly it at full speed. On the pathway, she could feel the speed even when there was no wind to indicate just how fast they were going. It made her dizzy and left her wanting to hold on to something for safety. But there had been nothing around them and she had been far more scared of falling then, than she had ever been in her life. She still couldn't believe that they were trusting Loki of all the people to carry them around like that. But now that the danger was over, she could barely resist the smile that was forming on her face thanks to left over adrenaline. She now wondered what sight would have met her eyes had she not closed them the second she had been pulled into the pathway.

"What are you looking for, my Prince?" Heimdall asked in a whisper to Loki.

"Another pathway." Loki replied curtly.

"I don't see you doing anything. How are you searching for it?" Sif asked, barely restraining the curiosity in her voice. It had been a long time since she felt curious about the ways of seiðr. When she had been but a little child, she remembered staying with her aunt for long durations whenever her parents were busy with their duties, both being part of the King's Court. Her aunt had been an enthusiastic seiðkona and had tried to lure Sif into that lifestyle. That had been the only time Sif had been remotely interested in seiðr but even then her attention had always strayed to seeing the boys around her practice different styles of fighting. It wasn't until she was old enough to receive the minimal warrior training that every Asgardian was required to go through, that she realized that she wanted to be a proper warrior and not just another common noblewoman. After that, the more time she spent with the boys while training, the more respect she lost for anyone with seiðr and by the time she had met Loki, she had more or less thought of seiðr beneath her and anyone with any sort of self-respect.

Loki, startled by her question and more importantly, the hint of curiosity in her voice, looked at her and contemplated, looking for signs of mockery as had been present throughout their lives. Sif's eyes were solely trained on his face and her eyebrows were losing the battle of feigning disinterest but despite all this, there was a wariness on her face that hinted that she didn't expect a straight answer from him. Loki was not one to confirm to other's expectations, so he decided to be straightforward and honest with her. It would definitely throw her for a loop.

"I surpassed the level in my training long ago where I would need to actively chant a spell or … how do you common people say – do the 'elaborate hand movements' – that are required for most of the complicated spell work." Loki said with a slight sneer, not as vicious as his usual ones but enough to show that he thought them all to be beneath him, which they were. He had no doubts about that. "All of that is not only over the top show-y but also gives away your position to others."

"But you still do them. The 'elaborate hand movements'. I have seen it in battle." Sif said in a challenging manner and ignored Hogun, who was discreetly trying to tell her not to engage with Loki.

"Only when I need to hold something or if it is a particularly difficult spell that would require complete attention to be done inconspicuously." Loki explained and turned his attention back to the invisibility glamour he had put on his seiðr while searching for the next pathway.

"And what if there is none other pathway than the one we came through?" Hogun interrupted before Sif could ask another question. He remembered that Loki usually took offence to being asked a lot of questions about his seiðr. It was as if he thought that they were never genuine with him, which if Hogun was to admit, they had hardly ever been but even when they had genuinely wanted answers from the younger prince, they had been scoffed and made to feel inferior in front of him. That was the main reason they all treated him with disdain.

"Then we go back to the one we came from and retreat till we find another pathway." Loki replied nonchalantly. This art of his was more of a trial-and-error than he was comfortable with, especially with Thor's idiots accompanying him. "The one we came through is an old one. There are chances of falling off it if we were to continue on that. Anyway, this is a port planet. These types of planets usually have plenty of pathways surrounding them."

"Now what?" Volstagg asked, joining the others.

"Portal to the nearest path." Loki said and waved his right hand lazily in a circular motion, more for show than necessity. A shimmering green and golden portal opened up in front of them and Loki stepped aside to let the others go through first.

The six of them stepped into the middle of what looked like a residential area. A few roadside shops littered the area but much was covered with children playing and adults mingling with each other as the sun set behind the forest to their right. Loki walked to a light yellow plant near them and plucked a few leaves off it.

Distributing the leaves to the others, he said, "Medicinal herb. Keep smelling it whenever you get dizzy or sick while travelling on the pathways. I do not want to handle any more problems." As the others tentatively smelled the leaves, Loki asked, "Ready?"

"Wait!" Hogun exclaimed and looked at Loki as he remembered something. "You said you haven't come to this side of the universe yet."

"Yes?"

"So, how do you know where we are going? How do you know where Midgard even is?"

"I don't." Loki shrugged.

"You don't know where Midgard is?" Sif asked in disbelief.

"No." Loki replied and walked away from the horde of children playing near them. "But," he said as the others followed him, "I am going towards the newer sections of the universe. The Nine Realms were created somewhere in the middle time periods as regards to the universe creation and we are currently in a pretty old sector. So I have to go towards the newer areas…"

"There must be hundreds of these 'newer areas'. How are we to reach the Nine Realms?" Fandral asked.

"The inherent energy of the Nine Realms is the same energy as my seiðr. It calls to me."

"It _calls_ to you?" Volstagg repeated skeptically.

Loki rolled his eyes. "Yes. Now if you are done asking stupid questions, can we move on?"

"Come on." Sif sighed and held out her hands, asking the others to come closer so they could continue with the journey.

They continued in the same manner for quite some time, stopping at a few planets on the way. They had found the next pathways pretty easily on the other planets that they went to and even the others had started to get confident over this unorthodox method of travel.

The six of them walked briskly as they touched ground on yet another planet and walked right into the middle of a sort of party. To everyone's except Loki's surprise, none of the party-goers even so much as looked at them as they walked to a slightly private and secluded area of the party.

Volstagg moaned as he stared at the various food that was spread over the central table and hungrily eyed the brown colored, wrinkly alien who was devouring the food with gusto. Even the others were now looking at the food and Volstagg commented, "As long as we are here, we might as well help ourselves to the food."

"We might," Heimdall agreed but argued, "but we do not know what sort of people they are or if they would take offence to us."

"Hurctarians." Loki said, nodding to a couple of brown aliens. He was casually leaning against a wall and scanning the area for any threat. The others were huddled around him to hear him over the blast of noise that was probably music. "They originate from the planet Arago-7 but have spread over many parts of the universe, which is why it is difficult to identify the planet just through them."

"How do you know all of this?" Fandral asked.

"I travel."

"So, we can eat now?" Volstagg grumbled in annoyance.

Loki took a moment to leave the support of the wall and said, "We are currently invisible…"

"I was wondering why no one seemed to notice us or at least me. I am extremely pleasing to the eye." Fandral preened while the others ignored him.

"Did you really think we could appear anywhere we want and no one would question us?" Loki asked with a roll of his eyes. "We are cloaked. No one can hear or see us, which is why none of you should pick up anything without telling me, for I would need to cloak that too. Now stay here, I will go get some food."

Heimdall opted to accompany Loki while the others stayed back without complain. Now that they had taken some time to relax and were not immediately jumping into some or the other portal or pathway, they realized how tired they were.

Hogun inhaled the sharp but sweet smell of the leaf that Loki had given them on the first planet they had landed on and felt the dizziness of travel ease. Leaning against the wall as Loki had done, he asked, "Is it just me or does Loki seem different?"

"Different how?" Fandral asked distractedly, looking at the various ladies around them.

"Calmer, I would say." Sif said as she followed Loki and Heimdall with her eyes. The two of them were collecting a few items from the table when no one was looking. As she focused on Loki, she realized that she was correct. He did look calmer than the last they had seen him, even though he looked pretty tired. It wasn't evident from his face or posture but she had gone on enough trips with him and Thor to know when either of them were feigning strength when they were low on energy. She supposed that if they were tired from the travel, it would be far more draining for Loki, who was actually carrying them around. She remembered that her aunt used to say that using seiðr was like exercising – after a point you would start losing energy or something like that. She had hardly ever paid attention to what her aunt used to say.

"Hmm…" Volstagg wondered. "Calmer… yes, he does seem like that even though he is as annoying as ever. He was different when Thor had broken him out of the dungeons."

"Well, he _had_ been brought out of solitary confinement. I would say anyone would be different then." Fandral commented.

"Mmm… something else too." Hogun said, as he watched Loki and Heimdall make their way towards them.

"Like what?"

"I don't know."

They all fell silent as the two companions returned and handed out the food, which they ate in relative silence while looking at the people. Loki informed them that there was excess food since it seemed that the party had been originally for a far larger group but they must have disappeared after Thanos succeeded. That was all the information Volstagg needed before he gorged on as much as he could without raising suspicions.

The huge warrior belched and patted his stomach in contentment as he finally put down his bowl of some sort of pudding. They all had moved outdoors to a pretty well-kept garden and were currently sitting below a huge tree with equally enormous roots that were well above the ground. They all were leaning against the roots, comfortable and content with the food and alcohol that they had just consumed.

It was night on the planet and they could make out the shape of another huge planet which was most probably pretty close to the one they were on. The air was thicker than what they were used to and the weather warmer but it was still comfortable enough for them as they already had lots of experience with weird climatic conditions on their various quests and adventures.

Fandral launched into a glorious tale of their past adventures as Loki went to sit on top of a root, leaning against the tree trunk. He was close enough to the group to be able to hear them and yet at a polite distance from them under the guise of wanting to keep an eye on the party and see if anyone made their way towards the little group. Halfway through the tale, Volstagg interrupted Fandral with his snores and the group chuckled while Loki sighed in relief. This way at least he had a feeble excuse of staying on the planet for some more time. He could regain his energy now without worries.

"I suppose we are staying here then for the night." Heimdall commented and looked at Loki who made a noncommittal sound and kept an eye on a group who were dancing pretty close to their location.

Loki erected a shield around them as additional protection and then let his seiðr flow out of him in small quantities so as to not attract attention of any other seiðr user. Automatically being attracted to the energy of the pathways, his seiðr went out in search of the area they had landed in and encountered the remnants of the energy. He had had to manipulate the pathway's energy to bend inwards towards the planet, which had taken a lot out of him. As the foreign energy flowed into him, he relaxed a little and let the natural conversion process take over. He knew, come morning, both his energy and seiðr would be replenished. The only unfortunate side effect of doing this in one go rather than in little quantities over time, was that it made him sleepy and he did not trust the others enough to sleep with them as back up. Once, he may have trusted them enough for that but not anymore. He suddenly found himself wishing that he could replace the others with Thor. He trusted Thor enough with his life to not let any harm come to him. Trusting his older brother with his heart was a matter that he would rather not even think about. That trust had been lost over the years and Thor had never done anything to even try and win it back. Loki wondered sleepily if Thor even knew or cared about that lost trust. He had been trying to be more open with Thor in areas that mattered but he needed some sort of acknowledgement from his brother regarding it. He knew that Thor too had been trying to get back to their old ways but Loki knew that they were no longer those two naïve boys and their relationship would never get back to what it used to be before. He wished that Thor too would recognize and accept that fact. Then maybe they could move forward.

Years of training and the recent hypervigilance was the reason that his hand caught the rock that came flying towards him even when he was almost asleep. Well, not anymore. Dropping the rock, Loki raised a brow at the others.

"I thought you were sleeping." Fandral said in lieu of an explanation.

"What do you want?" Loki asked in irritation. He had been so close to blessed sleep. Although, now that he thought about it, it was good that he didn't fall asleep with the others as company. If he had one of his usual nightmares… no, no, it was better to stay awake. But the lull of sweet, sweet sleep… no! Loki pinched his thigh discreetly and reminded himself with all the reasons to not sleep.

"Answers." Hogun answered.

"Regarding…?" Loki, sitting up straighter and unclasping his cape to roll it up and use it as a pillow. He was sure he had some or the other pillow in his dimension pockets. He had way too many things in there including but not limited to his entire library and parts of his mother's library that he had taken during his little stint as Odin and his favorite rocking chair that he was not going to leave to collect dust in his room.

"A lot of things." Sif said, carefully keeping an eye on Loki as his eyes hardened even though his body language remained the same. She was sure that one wrong question or wording would have him shutting down around them and until they reached Thor, they needed him to be on less hostile terms with them.

"Yes, like, what really happened on Svartálfaheimr or why you never told anyone that you were alive or why you took away our positions except for Hogun's or why you sent Sif away or even why you paraded around as Odin or…" Fandral listed while both Sif and Heimdall tried to catch his eye to shut him up.

"Or Thanos." Hogun said grimly.

"Yes, why would you work with him?" Volstagg asked sleepily, having woken up a few minutes back.

 _You think I wanted to?_

Loki gritted his teeth as he saw all of them look at him at that question. He wanted to shout at them and ask whether they really thought that he would do something like that willingly. He wanted to tell the truth. Hel, he had been wanting to tell the truth to someone, anyone, that wasn't Odin stuck in Odinsleep. The closest he had come to, was telling Thor and then too Loki had only hinted and let Thor build up on that. But he knew what truth meant. It meant weakness. It would show them that he was weak enough to be trapped and influenced by the Titan and that was something he would not allow. So, he gave them what they wanted to hear – another reason to hate him. Hate, he could manage. It was pity that drove him mad.

"Why do you think?" Loki sneered.

"Power?" Fandral suggested and Loki stayed mum. He knew that they would take his silence for acceptance but he didn't care. As long as they stayed away from the truth, it would be better for him. He had learned early on that the only way to protect himself from heartache was through lies. The more he lied, the less people prodded into his matters and he was left alone to nurse his broken heart in peace whenever required. He had learned that no one really cared whether he spoke the truth or not. As long as they got what they wanted, no one really cared about him and his so called ex-friends were the very first people who had imparted that very important life lesson.

"What more power could you require than the heir to the nine realms?" Hogun wondered aloud.

"Second heir to Asgard, not the nine realms. It is but a rumor that Odin ever had control over the realms. He never did. The other realms had pledged allegiance, that's all. They could have gone against All-father's words but that would encourage war and no one really wanted that." Loki corrected, still not actually answering the real question. He wondered what tall tales they could derive from his silence. He had observed that people were very creative and imaginative when it came to slandering others.

"So, you did all this because you were jealous of Thor? That you could never get the throne of Asgard so instead you wanted Midgard for your own?" Volstagg frowned, his ire now obvious on his face.

Loki bristled and said, "I had the throne of Asgard."

He hated the fact that they all, especially Sif, considered him to be jealous of Thor. Sure, at times he was jealous of his brother but not for the reasons that they thought. Ever since he was a child, if there was one truth that he was aware of, it was that Thor would always be the one to ascend to the throne of Asgard and he had made his peace with that long before they had even hit maturity. It was the fact that Loki had to work ten times harder than Thor to get even a smidge of acknowledgement from anyone that wasn't Frigga that always ate at the younger prince. As was his birthright, in the eyes of the people who didn't know his real heritage, he should have been as acknowledged and appreciated as Thor had been. But that had never been the case. The throne was something that Loki had no use of. It would only tie him down to one place and like he had told Thor once – satisfaction wasn't in his nature. He would never be satisfied with being the king or living in one place. He was curious since birth and he wasn't meant for one place. His wanderlust was very real and being in any one place would drive him crazy, which was why the solitary confinement was the worst sort of punishment Odin could have ever given him.

"As Odin, maybe." Fandral scoffed.

"I had it before that too."

"Sure…"

"Heimdall?" Loki said sweetly, turning to look at the all-knowing gatekeeper and silently daring him to lie.

Clearing his throat, Heimdall informed the others, "Both the times Loki took the throne, it was his right to take it, with the All-Father in sleep and Thor on Midgard, the first time due to his banishment and the second time due to renouncing the throne. Although I am sure that there was some trickery involved in the second time."

"Then Loki didn't forcefully take the throne from Odin when Thor was banished?" Volstagg asked in confusion.

"No, you dimwitted fool!" Loki growled out and then took deep breaths to calm himself, reminding himself not to kill the others as of yet.

"No, he didn't." Heimdall replied. "His fight with Odin, along with Thor's banishment was what acted as the catalyst to the Odinsleep and he was properly handed over the throne in the presence of All-mother."

"Why wasn't anyone informed of this?" Fandral asked.

"Maybe because my _brilliant_ brother had as much as declared war with Jötunheimr?" Loki seethed. "It was a tactical decision. As long as no one knew of the change, the jötnar could not be aware of the weakening in the family and could not target it, especially in the middle of the night. The bifrost was then closed and all communications were under strict monitoring. No one could have known of it outside Asgard." Loki glared into the distance and then looked at them and said, "By the way, this marks you as traitors to Asgard. All of you. Officially!"

It may have been a little childish to point that out, but he had been waiting to do that for far too long.

"And you knew of this." Sif said to Heimdall. "Then by law…"

"By law and by my oath, I should not have let any one of you even enter the Observatory, let alone use the bifrost." Heimdall said with a nod and sighed. He looked at Loki and decided that maybe the boy could use some explanations in his life. Maybe that would encourage him to tell the truth about Thanos. "The reason I let you go was that I had witnessed the argument between Loki and Odin and I knew Loki was breaking under the pressure of betrayal…"

"And?" Loki sneered. "Go on, say it. Say that you couldn't obey a jötunn."

Heimdall calmly looked at Loki and said in an even voice, hoping to get through to the troubled child, "I could obey you. I always knew of your birth. I am bound to obey the king, no matter who it is. But I could not obey a child, who, while being adept at politics, was way out of his depths in ruling a kingdom without any support. I had hoped that the Warriors Three and Lady Sif would have been successful in getting Thor home and then the pressure could be off you."

"Lies." Loki gritted out. "You disobeyed even Odin by letting us leave in the first place."

"And pride." Heimdall continued as if he had not heard Loki. "Pride because somehow you had managed to get enemies of the kingdom inside without my knowledge. And for that I admit, I wanted to see you fall. That was the reason why I went against explicit orders both of the times."

"Well, fall I did." Loki said in a hollow voice and turned to look at the party that was somehow still in full swing. Did the people not care that half of the universe had just been murdered?

"That is not what I meant."

"That is what happened." _That is what I deserved._

"That must have been when you met Thanos." Hogun observed. "After that you went to Midgard and since then we all knew you were in the dungeons and later disguised as Odin."

"Yes." Loki said curtly and watched an insect make its way around the roots they were all sitting on and wondered when the warriors had grown a brain. Maybe they needed one with no Thor or Loki to entertain them fulltime.

"Loki, why did you work with Thanos if you knew what he would do this-this killing of half the universe?"

"Did you know he was planning to do this?"

Loki made a non-committal sound. To be honest with himself, he couldn't remember when he found out the purpose of Thanos' quest. Whether it was while he was in the Sanctuary or later on, he had no clue. Unfortunately he had a lot of memory gaps from his time over there – possibly a combination of all the mind control he had been subjected to or his own mind blocking out the memories to suppress the trauma. Whatever the reason, he only ended up retaining the important facts and figures and not the actual memories.

"Then why did you agree to work with him?"

Loki looked at Volstagg, who had asked the question with a put upon bored expression. He knew they were all waiting for his answer but he was in no mood to answer anything. Thanos, Chitauri, the 'elite group', they were all a can of worms that he rather not open. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Heimdall's golden stare on him and he risked a look at the older man.

"Unless, you didn't know or found out only after you were in too deep." Heimdall said after some time when Loki had not uttered a word. Loki hated that tone of voice – that tone which suggested that the gatekeeper knew more than he let on and the trickster wondered whether Heimdall had heard the little talks that he and Thor had had on the Statesman. If that was the case, then the gatekeeper would have had enough knowledge to put together a rough idea of the truth. But what was he trying to do now? Was he trying to gain sympathy for Loki or something like that by hinting at something to the warriors? Didn't he know that no one cared? That if they hadn't put it together after seeing something so out of character for him, they would never understand it? He let it know through his glare that he didn't appreciate whatever the gatekeeper was planning of doing.

Sif stared at Loki for some time, trying to pinpoint exactly what was eating at her. After a few moments it hit her. Loki had been acting a bit weird ever since the topic of Thanos had come up and she suddenly understood why.

Fear was not something that she could equate to Loki but somehow it was the only thing that made sense to her. She had known the younger prince for almost their entire life, ever since that one day Loki had been old enough to attend the training classes. By that time, she and the Warriors Three, minus Hogun, who had joined their little group later on, were already fast friends with Thor and after some reluctance, had taken in Loki at Thor's insistence. But barring the first few years, she had never seen Loki being afraid of something, not for his own sake anyway. He had been plenty worried for Thor over the years, but never himself. Which was exactly why she was now having trouble in pinpointing the emotion beneath his casual demeanor. The shield maiden was sure that had she not been as close to Loki as she had once been in their childhood, she would have had difficulty in figuring it out, but she had always prided herself for being only second to Thor when it came to figuring out Loki. Unfortunately, Thor hadn't been all that good at that, which meant that she had been pretty horrible when it came to understanding her once friend.

"You are afraid." Sif pointed out and regretted voicing her opinion the second Loki turned his venomous glare at her.

"Excuse me?" Loki asked in a quiet voice, a brow raised in indignation.

Fandral laughed and said, "Sif, you jest! Have you ever seen Loki being afraid of anything other than Thor?"

Ignoring Fandral in favor of her newly found understanding, she continued undaunted, "That is the only explanation to your ill-tempered behavior every single time the name comes up. It is not all that surprising considering he was the one who killed you."

Loki barely resisted himself from massaging his neck, a phantom pain throbbing in the general area and he could almost feel the Titan's hand around his neck, squeezing painfully. He had been resisting the urge to check for huge finger indents around his neck, for some time now. Even the high collars of his leather armor was restricting but the only reason he kept it on was that it would be out of character and telling for him not to be wearing the armor at all times.

"Why did he kill you?" Hogun asked.

"Hmm let's see. I work f-with him to get the Tesseract. That doesn't happen. Failure equates death and here I am." Loki said bitingly, still glaring at Sif for being all too perspective.

"Must you be so rude?" Fandral asked with a sigh. "We only wish to understand."

"Understand? Are you even capable of such a thing?"

"Loki!"

"I suggest you all get some rest. We will be leaving come morning."

Volstagg shook his head at his companions, warning them not to provoke Loki much and they all left the topic for now. Whatever discussion had taken place just yet, had been too personal for the young prince and further needling would only make him more hostile towards them. It took them some time but they all drifted towards an uneasy sleep.

Loki closed his eyes as he rested his head against the make shift pillow and basked in the red moon's glow. If he could ignore the conversation that had just taken place, he would say that he was almost as relaxed as he could be in the given situation. Obviously that didn't last long. As soon as the others were asleep or almost there, Heimdall joined Loki on top of the roots.

"Maybe you should tell the truth." Heimdall murmured as he looked at the night sky.

"Maybe you should not listen to conversations that are meant to be personal."

"I am not apologetic for doing so. At least I have a semblance of understanding now."

"Understanding?" Loki opened his eyes to look at the man next to him. "And tell me, gatekeeper, where has this new found understanding gotten you?"

"Relief." Heimdall responded, looking back at Loki. "Relief that we hadn't truly lost you to that monster. And anger at myself, for not having seen it beforehand."

Loki turned his gaze away from Heimdall. The gatekeeper was being sincere. That much he could tell. But for the life of him, Loki couldn't figure out the reason for such sincerity. But honesty needed to be responded with honesty sometimes and Loki let a little bit of it slip out.

"When my own so called family could not see it, then what hope did you have? Rest, Heimdall. I am keeping watch."

Taking the dismissal for what it was, Heimdall nodded once and went back to where he had been sitting, leaving the prince to his pensive thoughts.


	11. Chapter 11

**(A/N- Hey guys! So, here's the next chapter and it's from the Avenger's POV. Also, I just wanted to clear it up that I have no idea about Thor and Loki's age difference so I made it up. Hope you guys like this chapter. :D)**

 ** _CHAPTER 11_**

 _Location: Avengers Facility, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

Bruce stumbled in to the common area, rubbing the sleep off his face. All of the avengers and the families were gathered around the coffee table that was strewn with a few papers and far more coffee cups than required. The huge screen in the room that acted as television cum display board was playing the media coverage of the Avengers' interview and the UNGA meeting from the previous night. Bruce ignored it in favor of collecting a cup of tea from the bar top where Pepper and May were sitting solemnly. The scientist felt horrible for the poor aunt and the child she lost too soon. He wondered what could have possessed Tony to let a child become part of their ragtag 'superhero' group but Tony had been pretty depressed whenever he wasn't putting on a show for others and Bruce wasn't sure whether any questions about the Spiderman would be acceptable. Maybe some other time. He was not going to let the topic go away. A high school student should not have been involved at all.

The alien girl that Thor and Tony had picked up was roaming the room, occasionally poking at something before moving on to the next item while the talking raccoon had taken up permanent residence on Thor's shoulder, not that the god minded it. Those two were the only ones actually watching the media coverage or most probably just staring at the TV. Clint, Laura and Scott were chatting about the kids while the kids were huddled in a corner over a bunch of playing cards. Bruce looked around for his first friend in the whole team and found Tony in a corner, talking on the phone. Rhodey was talking with Scott's friend whose name Bruce couldn't remember. Probably Jack or something like that. That left the Captain, Natasha and the Wakandians. Those five were discussing the condition of Wakanda while sipping on Starbucks coffee.

The others had found out that the three Wakandians had never had Starbucks aside from their couple of trips to California. Tony had obviously taken it up on himself to provide them with their favored coffee and they all had taken a detour to Starbucks on their home from the press conference. It looked like Happy had probably gone on a coffee run in the morning once again. Thankfully for them, Tony actually had a tie up with one of the Starbucks shop near their compound and could get whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. Bruce still didn't understand the obsession though. In his opinion, it was all overrated but he was sure the Wakandians didn't really care about that.

Joining the others on the couch, Bruce took a peak at the papers spread on the table. Some of them were their agenda from yesterday while some papers looked comparatively fresh.

"Scoot over, Brucie." Tony said as he neared the armrest of the couch Bruce was sitting on. Catching Bruce's eye on the papers, Tony sat down and explained, "Clampton faxed these. Agenda for today. Public service and all of that. We gotta help the locals, cops, yada yada in making everything come back to normal."

"Normal?" Bruce repeated. He couldn't even imagine anyone ever going to something like 'normal' after what had happened.

"Yeah," Steve said, joining in their conversation and avoiding eye contact with Tony, "people need to know that they can move forward from this. The sooner things go back to as they were, the sooner government can get control over this chaos."

"That's what Clampton said." Tony said, taking a sip of his own way-too-strong coffee.

Tony and Steve were somewhat on their usual talking terms and had reached a truce for the time being. Bruce wondered for how long that would go on and who would crack first. As it was, whenever the two of them were involved in the same conversation, the tension sky-rocketed. Bruce didn't know what exactly had gone wrong but he was sure that it couldn't be just the Accords. Could it? No, it didn't seem like that because even the UN had agreed in their meeting to put the Accords on hold till things settled down at least. They needed all hands on deck.

"By the way, Doc," Tony said, "Ross is gone. Dust and all. Clampton called early morning to confirm."

"What?"

"Yeah. He and a couple others were in some sort of high level security meeting with no footage of the meeting and no phones to contact anyone. Two of them including Ross turned to dust while the other three had no way to contact anyone outside. They were found when their phones were traced to the Ross' residence. They couldn't leave the damn room because it required Ross' fingerprints."

"Damn."

"What time are you guys leaving?" Laura asked Steve and Tony.

"Leaving?" Bruce asked in confusion.

"Yeah, leaving." Tony picked up a sheet of paper and passed it to Bruce. "Community service kind of stuff. Told you, we gotta help the people. This," Tony pointed at the paper, "is the schedule for today. Cleaning up roads, helping the ones who are lost, public appearances, all that kind of stuff."

"Did any of you even sleep?" Bruce asked in general as he went through the details. They all had been paired up with one other or the local cops. While the whole schedule looked good on paper, the scientist knew that they were moving too soon for the people. But obviously the government only cared about gaining control rather than the emotional welfare of the people. As long as he could help, Bruce decided that he wouldn't voice any argument. Yet. He knew Tony was more likely to listen to his view rather than anyone else's.

"Here and there." Steve answered. "We'll be leaving in two hours' time at most."

"Tony and I will be going to office first to check up on the employees and get somethings underway for relief work. As of now we haven't been able to contact about 320 employees. And that is in America and Latin America. Who knows about everywhere else?" Pepper said in worry as she perched on the armrest next to Tony. Turning to Tony, she said, "May decided to go to Peter's school and get in touch with the students and their families from there. Some of the students are also getting together over there. She'll be in touch with me or Happy the whole time. Did you talk to Wong yet?"

"Mhmm…" Tony hummed as he looked at a desolate May. "Wong said that they lost their leader and everyone in their community is busy protecting their Sanctums or whatever. He seemed pretty casual about it. Wizards!" Tony snorted and drank his entire cup in one go to avoid thinking about Strange. If only the man hadn't given up the time stone in exchange for Tony's life, they wouldn't be in the current situation. Why couldn't the man just do his damn job of protecting the stone?!

"We should leave." Shuri said, rolling a small black colored ball in her hand. "The people need our help. Let me know if something comes up or you need something. Wakanda will remain open to the world but for now I need to return."

"We understand." Steve said. "We all should also make a move."

With that, all of them went around getting ready for a day of hard work after seeing off the trio. Laura and Jim planned to remain at the facility, looking after the kids and coordinating between the Avengers with Friday's help while Rhodey went down to the air force base. The court martial that Ross had threatened him with had never been actually acted upon and with Ross gone, no one else could take it for more than what it was – a threat. So, Rhodey had contacted his former boss and decided to help out with the military. The others, except for Rocket and Nebula – who were allotted a little space in one of the extra labs to learn about Earth tech so they could decide on how to proceed with the satellite building for Thor, were all going to their assigned boroughs, Scott and Thor being the only ones who were paired up with another person from their team. Scott with Clint and Thor with Bruce, as they were the only ones who didn't have as much knowledge of the city as the others did.

They spent the day cleaning up the roads of both vehicles and ashes, coordinating with either good Samaritans or cops in helping lost people find their family members, getting medical help to those involved in accidents and overall just giving hope to people around them. There was an overwhelming response from the children to help out and most of the Avengers spent majority of their time in getting the kids coordinated amongst themselves. The loss of traffic, both foot and vehicular was devastating to all of them. They were not used to near empty roads and footpaths and it hurt to see the roads devoid of people.

It was late evening before they all could return home, tired and depressed from their day's work. It had been one thing to imagine the work required to be done and another to witness the amount of dust/ashes that littered the streets and roads and the insides of many buildings. Every now and then, they would have to console a distressed family member or friend who had happened upon the scene in search of their people's vehicles. And on top of all that, some of them had to deal with angry people, who were upset that the Avengers did not win against this new threat. All of them knew that in a couple of days' time, the grief would turn into rage and then the masses would demand answers from the superheroes and somehow it didn't seem like their explanation in the press conference would hold.

Tony sat down with a groan on the couch and said, "I'm burning all my clothes from today."

"Yeah." Scott agreed as he entered the common room with Cassie.

Within the next ten minutes, everyone, including the children, had gathered in the common room once again. Pepper had convinced May to stay back with them instead of going to her empty apartment and she had agreed. She knew sooner or later she would have to face the situation but for now she wanted to push it away. She didn't think she could bear looking at Peter's stuff all over the house and stay sane. As it was, she had spent majority of the day with Ned and Michelle and a few of Peter's other friends who hadn't turned to dust. Spending time with the kids had only made her miss her Peter more and hearing Ned's teary promise to help out with Peter's stuff had made her dissolve into tears for the better part of an hour. At the same time, she didn't want to be under the same roof as the person who was the reason for Peter's… she didn't want to be near Tony. Somehow, she didn't have the same problem with Pepper and Happy and those two were helping her stay away from Tony. She wished Tony dead, even though she would never voice it out. But she wished it had been Tony instead of her baby who was gone. She couldn't even bring herself to feel bad about wishing such a thing.

"Can somebody get this damn kid off me?!" Rocket shouted as he entered the room with Nathaniel on his back and a giggling Lila and Jo following the two with cameras in their hands, no doubt taking pictures and videos.

"Oh god! Not again!" Laura cried out as she pried Nate's fingers off Rocket's fur. "He's been doing this the whole day."

"Yeah," Harley said with a smile, "Nate thinks that Rocket is a pet. By the way, Mechanic, Rocket is brilliant. You should have seen him work today and his weapon collection? Amazing! And the spaceship is just brilliant! You should learn from him." The boy added cheekily.

"Hey!" Tony said in an offended tone.

"No taking the kids near weapons." Scott said.

"Yes, Rabbit. The mortal children are not used to handling weapons at young age." Thor said as he reclined on the oversized recliner that Tony had bought just for him, a long time ago.

"Aunt Nat carries guns all the time." Lila said with a smug smile.

"Well, not being near weapons is just stupid. What do you do if you need to blow someone up?" Rocket asked as he studied the mechanics of Thor's recliner.

"Explosive arrows." Lila and Cooper answered in unison while Clint smiled at them and avoided Laura's glare.

"Or you could always use a flash grenade and then Taser anyone left." Jo said. "That's what Harley does anyway."

"Good going, kid!" Tony said and then added when Pepper glared at him, "I mean, stop using flash grenades. Did you make the Taser?"

"Yeah."

"Tony!"

"Good job!"

"Darcy!" Thor exclaimed as he sat up on his chair and Rocket stumbled back from the force.

"What?" Steve asked in confusion.

"Lady Darcy, my friend. I forgot to check on how she is doing and Erik Selvig and Jane. When you talked about Taser, I remembered Darcy. She loves to Taser other people."

"Okay." Tony mumbled and typed something on his pad. After a few minutes, he exclaimed, "Aha! There you go." Tony passed the pad to Thor and said, "They are all fine. Selvig, Jane and Darcy were seen at Berlin train station earlier today."

Thor breathed out in relief as he saw the somewhat grainy picture captured by a CCTV of his three friends exiting a train. Even though they had all lost touch with each other, what with the breakup and Thor's travels all over the nine realms, he still cared deeply about the very first friends he made on this alien planet.

"Daddy! You are on TV again." Cassie said, pointing out the pictures that the news channel was showing currently. It was of Scott and a couple of cops pushing a car to the side of the road to let the oncoming traffic move.

Then came another picture, this time of Clint handing over a child to her father. Another one of Steve sweeping the roads, Natasha also doing the same thing inside a bank, Bruce pulling out an unconscious boy from under an overturned car that Thor was lifting and another one of Tony talking to a few of the emergency personnel. The pictures continued in such fashion, showing both Avengers and the citizens helping each other out till Pepper switched off the TV, knowing that the others would not want to be reminded of the day they just had.

"What are they going to do with all the … dust?" Harley asked in a subdued voice, trying not to think about the pile of dust on his couch back home.

"They can't do much about it." Tony answered, not wanting to outright say that all of the ashes were going to landfills. It was crude to think of, but that was the only thing they could do about it. "But they are going to be putting up memorials everywhere."

"There's a candlelight vigil in San Francisco tonight." Jim said, reading the news off his phone.

"Yeah." Natasha agreed. "In a couple of other places as well."

They all tried to maintain a cheerful atmosphere for the children's sake as Happy and Rhodey returned with pizzas, but most of the time, each of them were lost in their own thoughts.

Thor brought out the communication device that he had received on Nix but it still showed no connection. Rocket saw the device and informed him that Terra was on the same frequency as required for the Galactic Network but didn't have any proper satellites that could carry out the required function.

"What's required for the satellite?" Tony asked with a frown.

"I'll give a list of items. If I can get them, I can make a satellite in maybe half a day, depending on the level of technology here. Then all you have to do is launch it or I can even get it to leech off one of the existing satellites."

"Our tech's not too primitive?" Clint asked, thinking about all the sci-fi stuff he used to watch that showed Earth tech as primitive mumbo-jumbo.

"Terra's technology is not the best there is but it is also not the worst we have seen. Considering that this part of the universe is still untouched by anything else out there, it is not bad." Nebula said.

"What she said." Rocket said, pointing a paw in Nebula's direction.

"Great!" Tony exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. If someone was making an alien satellite, he was going to sit in on all the action. "Come on, let's find out if we have what all you need. We can even contact Shuri. She might be willing to help."

Nebula picked up two slices of pizza and followed Tony and Rocket out towards the lab. Bruce and Harley followed the three, hoping to get more knowledge about all this new technology.

It was sometime later that Thor lay on the recliner, watching the children with a fond smile, especially the two boys, Cooper and Nate. The younger one was running around the room while the older one was giving chase. The sound of their laughter was the reason for everyone's smile, even May, although she was occasionally wiping tears too. The three girls were creating obstacles for the boys to run around and sometimes even joining them.

As he watched the boys, Thor fished out a black and yellow braid from his pocket and ran his finger over it, careful of not destroying the already fraying edges.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Clint asked as he and Laura sat down next to Thor's recliner and watched the kids.

"Just thinking about simpler times, my friend." Thor replied after he took a moment to remember what that phrase meant.

"Well, you can't get any simpler than childhood." Steve commented solemnly over from where he was sitting with Natasha on the other side of Thor's recliner. Watching the two running boys, he could almost imagine a younger version of him and Bucky, playing around the streets of their homes when Steve wasn't busy being sick.

Natasha made a sound of disagreement, thinking back to her own childhood days. She preferred now rather than those days. Clint smiled and said, "Except for some childhoods, I guess."

"What is the age difference between your sons?" Thor asked out of the blue.

"About eight years. Why do you ask?"

"That's almost the same as between Loki and I."

There was a sadness in his voice that made Clint want to console Thor even though the news of Loki's death had left him feeling satisfied. But he supposed he could be upset for his friend losing his brother instead of thinking it of as getting rid of an evil alien, however difficult that was to do. After all, Clint knew all about losing a brother, whether it be to death or to enmity.

Steve raised a brow and looked at Natasha. This was the first time Thor was willingly talking about Loki. The last time he had informed them of his brother's death, he had shut himself out from everything else, barely talking or laughing at all. Natasha felt the same and decided to use this opportunity to know more about their now-hopefully-dead enemy.

"So, what's the age difference between you two?"

"About a decade. I was born before the last leg of the war began and Loki near the end of it or even on the last day of the war. No one knows. But we always celebrated his name day with the celebrations of winning the war."

"What war?" Natasha asked, intrigued with this information.

"The Aesir-Jötnar war. The jötnar live on Jötunheimr, a cold and desolate planet. It was a terrible affair. It was also the bloodiest war for any of the nine realms. We won it when father defeated the King of Jötunheimr, Laufey and took their most powerful weapon, The Casket of Ancient Winters from them." Thor informed them in a subdued manner and added, "And I suppose Loki too."

"Huh? What do you mean by that?" Steve frowned and hoped that it wasn't what he was thinking it was.

"Was Loki from this other place?" Clint asked. That jackass was more alien than Thor?

"Aye."

"You told us Loki was adopted, not that he was a prisoner of war." Natasha said with a frown.

Thor sighed. "Loki is – was not a prisoner of war. Father found him after the war was over and saw that he was abandoned and so he brought him home. He said that it was only later he found out that Loki was the first born of King Laufey, but by then it was too late to return Loki and moreover father didn't know whether they would welcome Loki or not."

Natasha shook her head as she thought about it. She was sure there was a political reason somewhere in there for keeping Loki. Otherwise why would someone keep the child of the enemy with them, especially when the child is also the first heir of the said enemy? Or maybe it was because of that. Either Thor was not told the whole truth or he wasn't telling them the whole truth. Whatever. It was no longer relevant to them.

Thor chuckled hollowly and said, "Mother once said that I would treat Loki as a favorite toy and that was the reason Father couldn't give Loki back. I would not allow anyone to take Loki away from me, not even Mother or Father."

Seeing that the god was almost on the verge of tears, Clint said in a hurry, "Yeah, Coop was like that when Lila was born. He would want to take her everywhere. Even with Nate, Coop and Lila had to be forced to go to school and even then most of the time Laura had to inform the teachers that they might run back home in the middle of the day to check on Nate."

Thor outright laughed and said with a nod, "Aye. I do remember a few times when I insisted on Loki being with me in my classes. That is the reason why he had to learn ahead of his age. But he never minded it and never complained about it."

"You and Loki used to be pretty close, huh?" Natasha asked with a smile. If she could separate Loki-the-villain from Loki-the-kid-brother, she could almost imagine an innocent kid. But for the life of her she could not imagine them being the same person.

Looking at the braid in his hand, Thor said with a smile, "You would never find us away from each other. Even when we were punished for some mischief, we would end up in the same room. For those times, we developed a secret language, using only eye and hand movements. Mother and Father could never understand how we communicated even when we were not talking."

Clint remembered his own shorthand that he and Barney had created for themselves. A thought struck him and he asked, "Growing up, you both didn't have many friends, did you? I mean, don't get me wrong, but the way you are talking, it seems to me that at least for a long time, you and your brother were each other's only company."

"Very astute, Barton." Thor said, glad to talk about happier times. "Yes, for quite a while, we were our only company. Being princes, we had to be separate from the masses, even the nobility. We had to behave in a certain way with others and for that reason, we didn't have that many friends. Even later on during our training days, our friends were actually also part of the Royal Guard. Or was it the other way round? I do not remember anymore."

"What's that?" Lila asked Thor, pointing to the braid in his hand as she climbed up to sit on Clint's lap.

"Hair." Thor replied. "I… uhh… in our culture, we braid the hair of those we love with our own hair to never forget them. I no longer have long hair so I cannot braid anymore."

"Yours is the blond hair?"

"Yes and the black one is my brother's."

"If you have short hair, then where did you get the braid from?" Cassie asked, crowding over to see the braid.

Thor smiled at the girl and explained, "From my cousins' palace. When my brother and I were younger, we used to visit my cousins' palace a lot. Then one day my brother had to go to Alfheimr… that's a faraway place – to study."

"Like a boarding school?" Lila asked.

"Uhh."

"Something like that." Clint told his daughter.

"Yes, so Loki had to leave and I was in Asgard. That is my home." Thor explained to the children. "And Loki was in Vanaheimr. That is our cousins' home. He knew I was going to visit there, so before leaving for his studies, my brother cut off the braid that he had and left it over there for me as a reminder that he would return. This is that braid." Thor showed them the braid. "It is enchanted to never wither or fade. Back then I didn't have long hair. I had accidently burnt it off during a prank." Thor thought fondly of the slight accident that he and Loki had had in the palace kitchen. They were banned from there ever since.

"Creepy, but cool. What do you with it?" Jo asked, looking at the hair in morbid fascination.

"Normally, I would pin it up with mine but…"

"You have short hair. It wouldn't look good if you do that." Cassie said, scrunching up her nose.

"Ah yes."

"You know what!" Lila exclaimed. "You should make a bracelet out of it or-or a locket. They teach us in school in crafts. I could make it for you if you like."

"Lila, I'm sure Thor…" Clint started to say but Thor interrupted him.

"A fine suggestion, young lady." Thor said with a grin. If made into a piece of jewelry, he could never lose it and could even keep it with him when he donned his armor. The armor had no concept of a pocket.

"We would need the hair for that." Lila said, pointing at the hair.

"We should take it later." Cassie suggested. "What if we lose it? We should first come up with a design."

"Yeah, come on." Lila agreed excitedly and jumped off the couch. "Coop, come help us. We will show you the designs later." She told Thor and the children went off to work on their latest project.

"I'll keep an eye on them." Jo said with a huff and went for her baby sitting duties, picking up Nate and taking him with her.

"That was…"

"Unexpected."

"And needed. If they didn't have any work for another hour, they would drive me crazy." Laura commented.

"I hope you know what you got yourself into." Scott said as he watched the kids run out of the room in trepidation.

Thor shrugged and thought about how Loki would scoff at him and say 'sentiments' but all the while would be pleased that Thor cared. Thinking about Loki, led him to think about the last time he was with his brother and said bitterly, "The absolute last thing I told my brother was how bad a brother he was. I do not mind any troubles that come my way in order to carry this around with me forever." Thor looked at the braid and kept it away to avoid damaging it.

"I'm really sorry about your brother, Thor." Pepper said from where she was sitting opposite him and working on her laptop.

"Thank you. At least now he rests in Valhalla with our parents."

Steve hummed and hoped that he could also have hope for Bucky residing in heaven but somehow he didn't think that dying by a bunch of stones would land someone in heaven. Or maybe it could. Or maybe the souls of the people also turned into dust. Who knows?

"So, what are we going to do about Thanos?" Scott asked.

"What can we do? He is somewhere in space. How do we even begin to find someone like that?" Clint asked in frustration.

"Is there something like Interpol in space?" Jim asked. "This perp would have been around for a long time right? Maybe someone would have some sort of info on him?"

"What is Interpol?" Thor asked in confusion.

After a brief explanation from Natasha, Thor nodded and said, "Like a peace troop or spy network? Asgard used to carry out that function before… well, before everything happened. At least in the nine realms. In other parts, there should be some sort of such organization. I remember that Xandar used to be one of the prominent planets to carry out such functions. But Thanos destroyed it."

"Thanos destroyed an entire planet?" Steve asked in disbelief.

"Thanos threw a moon at me. I say he could destroy planets." Tony said, entering the room with Nebula, Rocket and Bruce.

"He threw a 'what' at you?" Pepper yelled as others stared at the inventor in disbelief.

"Umm… did I not mention that?"

"No, Tony. You did not mention being attacked by a goddamned moon!" Rhodey yelled at his best friend and shook his head in exasperation.

"Huh! Must have slipped my mind."

"Slipped your…?" Bruce said. "If it had been me, I would have still been freaking out about someone throwing a moon at me."

Tony gave a dismissive wave and said, "So, space Interpol, huh?"

"Inter-Galactic Peace Council." Nebula corrected.

"Or as I call them, the Pain-in-my-ass Council." Rocket grumbled.

"You've worked with them?" Steve asked.

"Nah. Who would wanna work with those jackasses? We used to run away from them. I had a love-hate relationship with them. They used to hate me and I used to love breaking out of their prisons."

"You are a criminal?" Jim asked. "I thought you were called Guardians of the Galaxy or something like that."

Rocket shrugged and said, "The best criminals make the best anti-criminals or whatever the opposite of criminals is but not heroes."

"Huh?"

"Cuz we know all the loopholes anyone else could use? Seriously? You guys are dumb!"

"Hey!"

"Anyway, we only became the Guardians shit because of Quill. He said that we needed to protect the galaxy cuz we were one of the idiots living in it."

"Can't argue with that logic." Bruce muttered.

"Yeah. That's why we started doing all this stuff. Plus we got benefits. We could blow shit up and the dumbass council couldn't arrest us cuz we were protecting the galaxy."

"I think _they_ need the Accords more than us." Bruce said and Clint snorted.

"But the Council's information is useless to us." Nebula said, steering the conversation away from irrelevant topics. "Where Thanos is concerned, it is outdated at best and many of the people in it are either working for Thanos or are too scared of him to do anything about him."

"That's what Gamora used to say."

"How do you know this?" Steve asked.

"I'm the daughter of Thanos." Nebula said as if it should be obvious to them.

"You used to threaten these cops for Thanos." Natasha said with a nod of understanding.

"Or kill them. Whatever was required at that time."

"Would you know where Thanos would be?" Scott asked.

"If I did, I wouldn't be sitting over here. I want to kill him."

"Yeah, Smurfette, we all want to kill him. But seriously, no clue about where he is? At all?"

"I stopped working for him some years ago and anyway, ever since Gamora left Thanos, he had been anticipating me to leave too. So I was mostly kept out of loop."

"So," Natasha said, "who would know anything about Thanos' whereabouts?"

"Normally, the children of Thanos, better known as the Black Order." Nebula answered, rubbing her wrist. "That's an elite group of people with various skills that Thanos collected over time. Gamora was the leader for a long time and then Ebony Maw. But as far as I know, all of them are dead, except for me. And anyway, even if one of them were alive, they would be of no help. They are the most loyal ones."

"But there must be someone like you or your late sister. Someone who is no longer loyal to him?" Jim said. "Every criminal organization has snitches."

"Snitches?"

"Informers. Someone who is no longer loyal to Thanos or wants to get out or you know, something like that." Jim explained.

Nebula shook her head. "Thanos could, at any point, read your intentions even without the mind stone. That's why no one ever goes against him and if they do, they are killed. Mercilessly. The only reason Gamora and I were never questioned by Thanos was because we were children when he took us and brainwashed to do his bidding and we were supposed to be the most loyal for that reason." Thinking for a moment, she added, "And we were used to Ebony Maw. He was an expert in mind manipulation. We used to train with him and we are warded against such manipulations other than the mind stone. You can't avoid that."

"Well, that's snitching-proof." Scott muttered, still trying to wrap his head around mind control. "You either brainwash people or scare them to death."

Natasha scowled. This was sounding way too much like Red Room to her. She asked clinically, "How did you know you were brainwashed? Normally, people don't know about it especially if brainwashing was done when they are children." She looked at Clint, who was already looking at her in worry and said, "You need outside interference. Someone completely new to the situation and objective. Someone to show you a new path."

Nebula sighed and said, "Thanos hardly used to manipulate people unless they were children who knew no better or extremely vulnerable. Most of the people were too scared of him to disagree with him and anyone else was killed."

"That's a lot of killing." May muttered under her breath.

"But you have to have had some sort out of external influence." Steve suggested, having read up on mind control, brainwashing and all sorts of things once he had found out about Bucky's condition. He knew he had been the outside influence for Bucky, just like Clint and Agent Coulson had been for Natasha.

Nebula shrugged and explained, "Around 7-8 years ago, there was this one prisoner. Thanos had use of him and the usual threatening methods didn't work on him seeing that he was almost dead when The Other found him."

"The Other? What the hell is that?" Rhodey asked.

"Thanos' personal servant."

"Thanos has a P.A.?"

"Never mind him." Pepper said, looking at Tony, who mouthed, 'it was a genuine question'.

"Doesn't this Other dude have a name or something?" Scott questioned.

"No one knew his real name." Nebula informed. "Anyway, so, Thanos decided that if the prisoner cannot be threatened then he needed to be manipulated, which was considerably easier to do because he was mostly unconscious. They are easier to manipulate then – plant a few ideas and it's usually done. So we were called in – the children of Thanos. Normally, we didn't get involved in all of this because usually it is not required. But Thanos wanted to be sure that the prisoner was under our complete control."

"So, you and Gamora either manipulated this prisoner or watched him getting manipulated. Right?" Natasha asked.

"A bit of both. Both of us were overseeing his whole treatment. Gamora was way more affected as a result than I was. She said that it was probably because she could remember bits of her life before Thanos took her away while I was almost a toddler when I was taken and then I have had my memory altered over the years." Nebula said, pointing to the bit of metal on her head and they all grimaced as they realized that the bits of metal in her were probably not natural for her species.

"I suppose it makes sense." Natasha thought out loud. "If you saw something happening to someone else that had happened to you. It might just make you sympathetic to their suffering. But that usually depends on how far you have gone by then."

"Yes, Gamora was a bit changed after that." Nebula said, remembering those days that seemed so long ago.

"Then something else happened right? Because there is no way that seeing someone else's suffering would suddenly make you want to leave like that. Especially, if you were trained to kill others." Clint prompted and wondered what sort of monster Thanos truly was. He remembered how hard it had been to get Natasha to start reacting like a normal person and that was when she had been actively looking to get out. He could only imagine the amount of time it would have required for this alien to get out from under Thanos' thumb. He wondered if she was yet to recover from all of that. Probably, she was.

"Yes, yes." Nebula said impatiently. "It was when the prisoner was able to break out of the control to some degree, enough to possibly disrupt Thanos' plans, then Gamora was truly changed. Some time back she told me that that was when she realized that if someone like that prisoner, who was starved for days on end and was more often than not, closer to the dead than the living, could try to break through, then so could she. A few months later, she got her opportunity in the form of retrieving the power stone and she left. I followed after some time, first to retrieve her, then to kill her but by that time, I was also starting to realize about life outside Thanos' group and since then I have been trying to kill Thanos."

"And you almost succeeded." Rocket pointed out gruffly.

"I did."

"Woah! You almost killed Thanos? On your own?" Tony asked, eyeing the alien in a new light. If she had been able to do something like that, then she was a good – a really, really good resource for the team.

The Luphomoid frowned and answered, "Yes, but I was captured right before I was about to kill him."

"But you could have done it? If you hadn't been captured, you could have killed him?" Natasha asked, leaning towards the alien.

"Without doubt. Well, mostly without doubt. Gamora and I had trained against Thanos himself. We knew his weaknesses."

"Unfortunately, that meant he knew yours too." Steve pointed out and she nodded.

Scott pursed his lips and suggested, "That prisoner, if he is still alive, would love to go against Thanos. He may be willing to help us out."

"Yes, he could be a potential ally." Thor said with a nod. "What happened to this prisoner after he broke out of Thanos' control?"

Nebula frowned at Thor and said in confusion, "Thanos did kill your brother, didn't he?"

"What does that have to do with all of this?" Thor growled at her.

"Hold on," Rocket said, standing up and looked at Nebula, "Are you saying that Thor's dead brother is the prisoner you are talking about?"

"Yes." Nebula replied. "I thought it was obvious."

"It…it really wasn't." Tony replied with a frown.

Nebula shrugged, unaware of the turmoil in the group and said, "At first when Loki was mentioned, I thought it was someone else because the Loki we knew was supposed to have been dead for almost four years or something like that. But then when we went to that Vana place, his face was all over this one painting."

"The Trade Treaty mural." Thor said hollowly as he remembered the look on his brother's face when Thanos' ship had appeared out of the blue and blanched at the implications of Nebula's words. "It was one of the biggest stepping stones in achieving peace and Loki had helped write the Treaty."

"That's when I thought that he must have spread rumors of him being dead so Thanos wouldn't come after him." Nebula continued. "It makes sense. It is what I would do if I was trying to stay away."

Bruce hummed and said, "7-8 years ago Loki was Thanos' prisoner? And around that time he came to Earth for the Tesseract."

"Which turned out to be the space stone." Tony noted, his brain coming up with theories faster than he could speak. "And he got the mind stone with him in that scepter."

"And if he was being manipulated at that time, then that means…" Natasha started to say.

"It means nothing." Clint seethed, his mind already formulating various answers for him. "You understand. It means absolutely nothing."

"Honey…" Laura said softly, stroking his arm and trying to get him to calm down.

"Not that I'm not thankful or anything, but why did Thanos not come here directly and sent Loki instead?" Tony asked. Thanos had not seemed like someone who would do their own dirty work unless absolutely necessary, but having given such important task to someone like Loki was extremely weird.

"He never did anything on his own. Always through his servants and allies. If he appeared at a planet, then it meant that the planet was going to die that day. Or at least half of the planet would." Nebula answered. "And anyway, the Sanctuary – that's the old base of operations – was on the borderline of the void and space, on the other side of the universe. It would have taken months to reach Terra. But Loki apparently had some power that allowed him to travel without using spaceships."

"Aye. My brother could travel large distances using portals of his own creation."

"So, he didn't need to use the space stone? Then why the fuck did he do that? He killed so many people that day." Clint growled at Nebula, who looked disinterested in the whole conversation.

"You say that Loki disrupted Thanos' plans?" Steve interrupted, knowing that this whole topic was opening old wounds for Clint and he didn't want to stick to one topic to analyze it now. He could do that later, maybe without Clint, if the archer was unable to separate his emotions, although Steve wouldn't blame him. "How?"

Nebula shrugged and said, "I don't know the details. I was working on another job at that time but I know that he changed the terms of the deal in the last moment. At first it was a simple job of getting the Tesseract and then giving it to Thanos. After that he would have been free. Well, they said free but he would have probably been killed if he didn't continue to work for Thanos. Then, he went ahead and asked for Terra to be his payment for the Tesseract. The original deal had no need for the Chitauri soldiers to be used. That incident cost Thanos around half of the Chitauri fleet at his disposal and back then it was a lot."

"That bastard brought the Chitauri here when there was no need of it?" Clint yelled.

"Did you know of any of this, Thor?" Steve asked. He wondered if this was anything like Bucky's situation. Nebula did imply that Loki was tortured and manipulated. So was Bucky. They both were made to things that they wouldn't have normally done. Or maybe Loki would have anyway wanted to take over the world – he did change the terms of the deal after all. Steve didn't know Loki well enough to pass that judgement. Maybe Loki was innocent in this or maybe he had truly been sympathetic to Thanos' cause. He didn't know but this was definitely something he would like to find more about, for his peace of mind if nothing else because he didn't want to put Loki and Bucky and similarities in the same sentence.

"I knew my brother was acting differently when he came to Midgard all those years ago and then recently… when we were coming here from Asgard with our people, he-he hinted at somethings that made me consider that perhaps he had not been himself all through the years. But Loki did not elaborate on anything and then later when Thanos intercepted us and Loki brought out the Tesseract, I thought he might have just been warning me in advance. That maybe he had called out to Thanos… but then, then Thanos killed him and now I'm not sure about anything." Thor lamented, trying to think of what all his brother may or may not have told him.

"And obviously he gave the Tesseract to Thanos! Brilliant!" Clint seethed in anger, throwing his hands up.

"Gamora gave the soul stone to save me when I was being tortured." Nebula said and added, "And that weird floating person gave the time stone to save Tony's life when Thanos was about to stab him. Thanos finds your weakness and exploits it to the fullest."

"You were almost stabbed?" Rhodey asked.

"He was stabbed." Pepper confirmed while Tony groaned and everyone looked over Tony to see where he was hurt.

"Well, we were fighting. Shit happens. Moving on." Tony grumbled.

"Loki had the Tesseract with him?" Nebula asked in confusion.

"At any given point, Loki has hundreds of things with him. It's hard to tell what he doesn't have." Thor replied.

"And he gave it to Thanos?" Thor nodded and she continued, "How come he is dead and not you?"

"What?"

"If you fail Thanos, he doesn't just hurt you, he _cripples_ you. He makes sure that death is a mercy for you." Rocket said. "It's a well-known fact in the galaxy."

"I failed him. I tried to kill him and instead he tortured me in front of Gamora to weaken her into giving him the location of the soul stone and then he killed her. Maybe it was meant to be a sacrifice or maybe it was meant to hurt me. But he never just tortures you or kills you if you fail him. He makes sure that you always remember that you are the reason everyone around you is dead, especially the ones you love."

"Sadist."

"It doesn't make sense to kill him and not you. That way he is never going to spend the rest of his life living with the fact that he is the reason his brother is dead. That's what Thanos does." Nebula said in a subdued voice. She had to live with herself, knowing that the reason Thanos obtained the soul stone was her and also the reason for her sister's death.

"Okay, okay." Clint said, not wanting to think of Loki, Thanos and mind control in one sentence currently. He did not like what it was implying. "Forget all this for a while and let's get back to the original topic. How do we find where Thanos is?"

"Can we even kill him?" Scott asked. "I sure want to. He took my ex-wife and my girlfriend and her family from me. I want to strangle him."

"Your hands will not fit around his throat." Nebula deadpanned.

"I can grow big."

"Not the point, man!" Tony muttered and Rocket exclaimed, "Cool."

"Smurfette once almost killed Thanos. If we get to him, could you do it again?"

"It will be next to impossible. Trying to kill him without him having any of the infinity stones was bad enough, but with the stones." Nebula shook her head.

"So, we take off the glove once again." Tony said nonchalantly.

"You all could hardly take it off the last time. What makes you think you can do it now?" Nebula countered.

Tony kept mum. As much as he wanted to blame Quill for that failure, he knew that if he had been in his place, and it had been Pepper who had been hurt instead of Gamora, he too would have gone off the reservation. Plus, she was right. There was no guarantee that they could do it again. Back then, they had that bug lady for putting Thanos to sleep or whatever and even then they had had way too much difficulty in getting the gauntlet from him. Now, without the bug lady, Tony didn't know how to overpower Thanos in such a way. Maybe with enough tranq, they could do something about it.

"We are getting ahead of ourselves." Steve reminded them. "How do we find Thanos anyway? I get it that all of us want revenge but we need to think rationally."

Rocket hummed and looked at Nebula. "Ravagers?"

"They might know." Nebula agreed with a nod. "They are terrified of Thanos but they also know where he or his people are so they can avoid those places."

"What's Ravagers?" Natasha asked.

"Crime syndicate. The biggest there is and the most powerful. You want anything, you go to them, unless it is children. They don't deal in children. That's one of their few rules."

"Go to the lower level criminals to get info on the bigger ones. Yeah." Jim said with a nod.

"You do realize that you are not really gonna be involved in all this?" Scott asked Jim.

"Shut up."

"So, where do we find them?" Natasha asked.

"Basically everywhere. There are thousands of Ravagers in the galaxy." Rocket answered. "Damn! If Yondu was alive, it would have been way easier. You can trust his information to be accurate and he is way better than the others."

"Contraxia is a good place to start." Nebula suggested. "You can always find at least one clan over there at any time."

"Then we could go there and see if there is something of value." Natasha suggested.

Rocket snorted and said, "You can't just walk up to Ravagers. They shoot first and then think of questions. I have no problem with that but I don't know about you."

"Perfect. I do the same." Natasha said with a sly grin.

"Great! We'll need a story, a plan and lots of furs and jackets. It's cold as hell."

"Okay, galactic chipmunks, you come with a story/plan cuz you know these Ravagers and I'll go see if we have what it takes to build an alien satellite." Tony said, getting up with a groan.

"You can just call it a satellite." Bruce said as he went with Tony.

"Nope and no, I'm not showing you my stab wound."


	12. Chapter 12

**(A/N - Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays you guys! Here's the next chapter :D)**

 ** _CHAPTER 12_**

 _Location: Dark Elves' Ship_

The clattering of items falling on the above level drew the Valkyrie out of the small but comfortable engine room. For all their crude designs, Brunnhilde had to give it to the Dark Elves' for creating one of the most comfortable engine rooms she had ever been in. The room could easily hold around half a dozen Asgardians and Sakaarians with enough space to move around, which was exactly what they needed right now since none of them knew exactly what they were doing. The technology was not only older than any of them but was also foreign to them. At least the older Asgardian technology was still understandable. Currently, all six of them were trying to figure out how each part of the giant machine worked based on the few instructions written on the machine.

Seeing that everything was more or less alright, Brunn left Hax in charge and went to investigate above.

The ship, at one look was no impressive than a scrap of metal, but on further inspection, Brunn had found that it actually boasted of a remarkable technology under the simple surface. The battleship was painted completely black, including the ceiling, flooring, controls, berths and everything in between and the lighting inside was a soft yellow, which was in stark contrast to the bright and colorful Statesman that they had all escaped in. Being one of the bigger battleships, it could easily house the hundred some survivors that were there.

Word of Kari's idea and Brunn's acceptance of it had quickly spread amongst the refugees and the excitement of actually doing something and not just sitting and twiddling thumbs had woken up anyone who had been sleeping. Soon enough, they all reached a unanimous decision that the entire group would go. No one wanted to stay on a dead planet anyway and Brunnhilde had to give in. In the people's defense, they did make a good point – what if something happened to the group who went to the satellite? It was a risk that no one wanted to take.

Reaching the main level that contained the ship controls and captain quarters, Brunn wished they could have just left the remaining Asgardians behind for the time being. The commotion was giving her a headache. It was the sounds of arguments and babes crying that grated on her ears and she gave a piercing whistle that cut through the high pitched sounds and gathered everyone's attention. Except for the babies. They just cried louder.

"What the Hel is going on over here?" Brunn cried out. "And take the babies somewhere else."

"There are resting quarters upstairs." Eda informed loudly and herded anyone with small children towards the glass conveyor just outside the main control room.

Giving a thankful look to Eda, Brunn looked around at the unorganized people. She needed to assign works to everyone but unfortunately there was not much to be done. "Okay. I don't need anyone to crowd over here. Do you understand me? Does anyone here, by any chance has any sort of proper military training?"

"Out of the way!" a male voice came from behind and a medium built, brown haired man stepped forward. "I am Frode Havardrson. I am an Einherjar. There are two more of us. They are arriving with the last lot."

Brunn nodded in relief. At least there were trained personnel amongst the soon-to-be rowdy crowd. She looked to the entrance of the room as the last lot of people being brought from the caves entered the room.

"That's everyone. I checked." Royd reported. "Korg, Vern and Ivar are bringing in the skiff now."

"Vern and Ivar are the other two Einherjar." Frode informed.

"Where should we keep the skiff?" Royd asked, eager to go and help out with managing the skiff.

"There's a cargo hold on this level. That'll be big enough. Just a…" Brunn looked around and spotted Alaric Volstaggson in the crowd. "Alaric! Show Royd the cargo hold."

As soon as the two left, she turned to the warrior in front of her and instructed, "Once those two Einherjar are done with the skiff, I want the three of you to check on the weapons on this thing and inform me if anything is a danger to the people here. All areas containing weapons of any sort are banned for the general public. I want only experienced people handling these things. Find Solveig Uridottir. She has the maps to this ship. Tell Royd to go with Korg and Biff and check on the escape pods on this thing. Go!"

The Einherjar saluted and ran off towards the sounds of excessive cursing that was for sure the group moving the skiff. Taking a deep breath, the Valkyrie looked around and thought of how to handle the people. Climbing on top of the captain's chair (thankfully it wasn't a swiveling one), she clapped once to get everyone's attention.

"Okay people, listen up. We are 112 people in total, including the Sakaarians and the new born children. I want you, Raul isn't it? to do a headcount. Make sure everyone is here. Take someone along to help you. You two?" Brunn pointed to a red haired, tall lady and her brunette friend. She had seen the two of them always together.

"Ragna and Brenna."

"Right. You two are in charge of the resting quarters. Go to the above level and check out the quarters. I want you assign resting areas to people. I don't want people loitering here. Go on to other areas. Find me or Korg if you have questions. Gunnhild, go check if the fuel tanks have been filled yet. Hugi, go make sure that no one is left outside and allow no one to step outside. Tyra Unsdottir, correct?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"I want you in charge of any one who can use seiðr along with Eda, men or women. Go around and find out how many seiðr-users are there and what they specialize in. They'll be required for sure. Go seek…"

A high pitched sound came from the hidden speakers, making everyone wince in discomfort. The sound soon faded to give way to the voices of children bickering. Brunn sighed in annoyance when she recognized the voices belonging to Sol and Kari. Well, at least she now knew where they were.

"Was that supposed to happen?"

"It's an old system, Sol."

"Great, now everyone can hear us."

"At least it's working." Kari shot back. "Ahem. Hello everyone. So the ship's announcement system works."

"Shut it down you…"

The sound system abruptly cut off and Brunn sent Magna off to find where exactly those two were. Taking charge like that had reminded her of her Valkyrie days where she would order around the troops throughout the day. It felt good to be back. After putting everyone to work and making sure that they all stopped crowding the central area, she went to look at the controls. Hopefully, they would not be so complicated.

It took almost two hours before everyone had settled down, the fuel tanks had been filled halfway with whatever fuel they could siphon from the nearby ships and Hax and Astrid, a half elf-half Aesir, who had some good knowledge of machines, had figured out the engines system to some extent. Brunn and Korg were huddled over the controls, doing a virtual check of all the systems. The wall on to their left had a hidden window that allowed them to talk to Kari in the communications room. Making sure that everything was alright, Brunn asked Kari to make the announcement and set course for the satellite coordinates that Kari had provided her with.

The cheers and joy of leaving the dead realm were soon behind them and there was a sense of apprehension that shrouded them and they wondered if the plan would actually work.

Brunnhilde closed her eyes, rested her head on the back of the captain's chair and relaxed into the seat. Somewhere to her right, Korg was whispering to Miek so as to not disturb her and Miek was replying in his usual chittering sounds. She could feel the slight vibrations of the engines but apart from that, the whole place was peaceful and she could almost imagine being back in her dingy apartment on Sakaar. So much had changed in just a matter of two weeks. So much. Once where she thought that she had left Asgard forever, she had returned, if only to try and kill Hela. She had to thank Loki more than Thor's 'hero' speech for that. Unknowingly, the black haired prince had encouraged her to leave Sakaar by drawing out her worse memory.

She let the memory of seeing Asgard blow to pieces wash over her and it left her with a heartache. At that moment, the shock had rendered her speechless and she had thought 'good riddance'. But now, it bothered her. Where once she had an option to return, however remote, now it was all but gone.

'Asgard is a people not a place'. Thor had said something like that. Another one of his rousing speeches, she supposed. She was more interested in keeping Hela in her line of sight, unlike the two brothers, who had been busy talking to each other. But then, for them it was a family reunion of sorts.

Brunn could appreciate the sentiment behind those words. She remembered it well enough from her Valkyrie days, when her troops would go all over the nine realms, capturing new places and kingdoms for the power hungry father-daughter duo. They had a saying back then – wherever even one Asgardian stood, was where Asgard was. Or something to that effect. That was the sole reason for the Aesir to settle all over the nine realms – to show that Asgard was present everywhere. And now all of Asgard was in one place, in one ship, going on towards some satellite in some misguided hope for getting help from someone charitable enough to help them.

This whole venture was raising red flags for her. What if they weren't able to access the satellite? What if the satellite was too old and was only able to receive transmissions and not send them? What if the people who came to check out the satellite were not on friendly terms with Asgard or were rejoicing the fact that Asgard was no more? What if they were attacked? What if they didn't have enough fuel to go somewhere decent?

These 'what ifs' crowded her mind and she shoved them back. What could she do anyway? When Kari had suggested the idea, she had been skeptical but she could understand the need to do something. She was Asgardian after all. It wasn't in their nature to just sit and wait for help to come to them. They weren't taught to accept help, they were taught to do it on their own. Accepting help had always been equated to admitting defeat and she was sure that notion had only gained momentum over the years. No wonder no one wanted to wait for help from Vanaheimr or Alfheimr.

"Brunnhilde?"

Brunn opened her eyes slightly at the soft voice and saw Magna looming over her. "Yeah?"

"Nothing. I was just wondering if you were sleeping."

"Not sleeping. What's going on?" Brunn sat up straighter in the chair and looked over the display screen. Everything was running smoothly. For now. Dark Elves' ships were one of the fastest in the nine realms thanks to their realm being situated towards the end of Yggdrasil. They needed to be fast enough to reach other realms within a matter of hours instead of days. They would be at the satellite in a couple of hours, since it was situated pretty close to the border of the realm and that was at half the speed. Brunn wasn't sure with which other realm, the border was shared with, but she hoped it was Niflheimr instead of the void that led on to Múspellsheimr.

Magna shrugged and perched on the side of control panel, away from all the controls and said, "I was bored. Came to see if you needed anything. Sol is sleeping in the skiff and Kari was playing with the communication thing."

"Nothing works except the announcement system." Kari said, coming out of the room next to the main control room. "It's too outdated to connect to anything outside."

"Expected that." Brunn said nonchalantly.

"How far away are we?"

"Couple of hours."

"You do know what you are going to do, right? It's all depending on you." Magna looked at Kari in apprehension.

Kari frowned and said, "I know that. Thanks for the reminder."

"We'll figure it out as we go." Brunn said with an air of finality. She could already see Kari about to break under all the pressure and Magna sure wasn't helping. Turning to Kari, she asked, "So, how much time would it take for a response team to come out over here?"

"Depends on the priority level." Kari answered. "But the response teams usually work fast. The nearest hub would be situated in Niflheimr. I don't know which side it is on but there should be a teleportation portal within the satellite itself. That is usually for maintenance teams and requires codes and biological scans to activate. We can't use that but if I can get inside, I can send an emergency message."

"What about the 'Intruder Alert' you were talking about?" Magna asked.

"That should be a last resort. It completely shuts down the satellite and incase the priority level of this satellite is not high enough, we would be shut out from any form of communication for even days till the response teams come."

"Then we should not do that." Korg piped up from where he was sitting on the floor with a drooling Miek.

"There is another problem." Magna said in a worried tone. "We don't have enough food. We didn't have it to begin with but now there are only a few items remaining."

"At least there is water." Kari pointed out. They had filled up any bottles that they had with the water they had found in the cave.

"Eda and Tyra have hidden the food for now in case anyone wants to keep something for themselves. But I don't know till when it will work out."

"We'll reach the satellite before that and we'll see from there." Brunn said adamantly.

Magna let the topic drop for the time being. If they didn't get any help within the day, there was sure to be a riot amongst the people. As it was, there was no food for the babies and their crying was already getting to a lot of people. They all lapsed into contemplative silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

"Hey! Is that the black hole?" came Sol's voice. Her hair was tousled from her impromptu nap and she was gently walking towards Brunn, her eyes fixed on the glass pane in front of them in wonderment.

"Yes, it is." Brunn replied as she looked at the looming black hole in front of them.

"Are we going towards it?"

"No, it only looks like that. We are going around it. See." Brunn pointed out as she changed directions on the controls.

"Anything from the channel?" Kari asked. They had kept the nine realms channel on, even though the skiff's fuel was being consumed faster.

"Nothing interesting." Sol replied. "They were going on and on about that Mad Titan and then the funeral. There is still no announcement about us. Royd says that if anyone does know about our survival, they are either waiting for us to turn up or hopefully, have been instructed by King Thor to keep it quiet to protect us. Alaric and Royd are listening to the channel. They said they'll let us know if something comes up."

"Half an hour more, give or take a few minutes." Brunn said, looking at the timer on the screen in front of them. "Once we reach there, Kari and I will go to the satellite in one of the escape pods. How are the escape pods doing, Korg?"

"They are doing well?"

"Okay." Brunn nodded, ignoring the confused expression on Korg's face.

"I want to go too." Magna said.

"And me too." Sol added.

"No way. What if something goes wrong?" Kari countered and it evolved into an argument within minutes. In the end, Kari, Brunn, Sol and Hugi (because there was no way anyone would allow three children to go out there with only one adult) ended up going to the satellite.

The satellite in itself was no impressive thing. It was cylindrical in structure and painted black and silver with the seals of all the realms except Midgard on it. Kari pointed out that it meant that the satellite network connected all the realms except Midgard. He kept pointing out simple things like that, probably due to being nervous about his upcoming role. He knew everything weighed on his ability to get into the satellite and send across a message.

"…and the slight blue-ish hue shows the breathable area. That's the line till where the maintenance crew can go. Inside that, we can breathe normally."

"Well, I need you to breathe normally now." Brunn said, patting the boy's back while sharing an amused look with Hugi, who was controlling the escape pod.

Kari took a few deep breaths and stared out at the looming satellite. Sweat broke out on his forehead the second they passed the blue line that indicated that they were now inside the satellite's property. Sol's hand in his was the only thing that calmed him down and he started to recite the emergency override code that he had had to remember during his training.

"This is the closest I can get the pod to the satellite." Hugi informed them as he brought the pod's entrance adjacent to the walkway outside the satellite.

"Is it close enough to jump?" Kari asked. The entire area surrounding the satellite had been modified in such a way to allow temperature and air control resembling that of the realms and they had no need for using spacesuits. Not that they had any in the first place. The Dark Elves' did not require additional spacesuits as that facility was inbuilt in their armor and so the ship had no such equipment.

"Yes."

"Okay."

"Come on. Let's go." Brunn said, ushering the two children forward. She and Sol had already had enough arguments about letting her go on to the satellite. In the end, the child won by pointing out that she could use seiðr and help them out if needed. "Hugi, you stay here since there is no way to get the pod attached to the walkway."

"Careful." Kari warned as he opened the door and peeped out. The gap was just enough to allow him to jump on to the walkway as long as he didn't look down at the emptiness below them.

A few minutes later, the three found themselves looking at a wall of cold metal. There were no gaps or lines or hinges to show even a hint of a door or a panel or something.

"Um… is it supposed to be this blank?" Sol asked her brother as she walked over to another section that showed the same result.

"Yes." Kari responded as he ran his hand all over the metal. "There should be a control panel somewhere here. Just search around this area." He motioned to the level at which his hand was pressing against the metal casing. "It will open when applied pressure."

"I'll go around and check." Brunn said, leaving the siblings to check other areas.

It was finally Sol who found the panel. True to Kari's word, when she applied pressure, a keypad materialized. It was a small rectangular keypad that contained only four round buttons on it. The buttons had no visible markings and she wondered how exactly one would input a code without seeing the symbols for it.

"It's not a normal numeric code or a runic code in any of the languages," explained Kari when he and Brunn had come over to see the panel. "This is a frequency generator and the code is in itself a frequency. I have to input the emergency override code as a frequency instead of words or numerals."

"Why does everyone have to complicate things so much?" Brunn sighed and leaned against the railing behind her as she watched Kari get to work, turning the buttons which turned out to be dials.

"So, you are putting the code that you knew?" Sol asked.

"Mhmm."

"What if that's not applicable over here?"

"It's a satellite specific code, if I remember correctly." Kari mumbled, still turning the dials and sighed as a red glow encased the panel. "And it is not applicable over here."

"Now what?"

Kari shook his head and walked up and down the walkway, mumbling to himself about something that wasn't too clear to either of his companions. He tried to remember the decade he spent learning about the satellites. It had been a satellite in Alfheimr's space but the basic functions of each satellite remained the same, regardless of their location.

"What are you doing?" Sol asked after some time.

"Thinking."

"Do you know what to do?" she continued to ask. "Are we stuck here? Can we break in through some other way?"

Kari stopped walking, glared at her and then stood in front of the panel as he looked pensively at the panel and fidgeted with the dials once again. The panel glew red once more and Kari sighed.

"Is there…?"

"Oh shut up, will you?" the boy yelled at his sister. "I'm trying to think here."

"Shouldn't take too long."

"Sol, come on." Brunn interrupted the girl. "Let Kari do his thing."

Frowning, Kari ignored Brunn and Sol and looked at the satellite once again, as if the answer to his puzzle was presented somewhere in the black and silver paint. What had his trainer told him?

"Kari?" Brunn asked and waited for the child to stop glaring at her. "You said that there are maintenance teams that come here, right? How does that schedule work?"

"I think once a month per satellite." Kari said distractedly.

"Why do you need the emergency override code?" Sol asked, squinting at the panel.

"In case of emergencies." Came the sardonic reply.

"What sort of emergency would leave someone outside the satellite?" Brunn asked, hoping that the questions would jog something in the boy's memories about the satellites.

"It's mostly useful for maintenance teams when they are either accidently locked out or have forgotten their codes or if there is some malfunction and they need to get to the teleportation portal in a hurry. Things like that." Kari looked around once again.

"Except," he said with building excitement, "except, the teams are on rotation basis and not all of them would know the emergency override code for each satellite they go to."

"Then?" Sol asked with a grin and Brunnhilde knew that the girl had only been riling her brother up to get him thinking.

"Black on black." Kari said with a grin and explained, "There is always a chance that the teams would not know the code and the code keeps changing for every satellite. But in such an off chance, the code is printed on the bottom of the satellite in black on the black painted area. But to see it, you need a light source. The code keeps changing using seiðr."

"Isn't that a security risk? To write it down?" Brunn asked.

"Kind of. I mean, it should be in either numerals or runes. It still has to be converted to a particular frequency and not many are trained to do something like that. Moreover, the high priority satellites are always manned so it's not an issue over there and satellites like this one are all but useless to the whole system. They are not connected in any way and even the teleportation portal in here has to be first activated by the Asgard, sorry Vanaheimr now, to be accessible."

"Still…" Brunn mumbled and followed Kari as he went to the one place where they had seen a ladder going down the satellite.

"I'll go." Sol offered. "I'm faster than you at climbing and all that."

"We still don't have a light source."

"Seiðr." Sol's hands glew light pink and she grinned at her brother. "Good enough?"

Kari chuckled and said, "Look at only the black painted areas. Any numbers you see on the silver painted areas are just coordinates. The code will only be visible when you are specifically looking for it. Remember those numbers or runes correctly."

"In what order?"

"I'll need to see them to know that so it doesn't matter. I'll figure it out. Just remember them correctly."

Sol nodded and started to climb down, trying not to look at the space around her. She wondered what would happen if she fell by chance. She didn't have any spacesuit or such to help her back to the satellite. Flinging the worrying thought out of her mind, she concentrated at the task at hand. It took her about half a minute to reach the bottom. She looked up to see the Valkyrie and her brother far, far above her and clutched on to the railing.

 _No, don't look!_

She turned around to survey the area. This time the platform that she stood on encased the bottom of the satellite completely and she was free to walk even to the middle. The bottom was painted in sections of black and silver. Ignoring the numbers and runes on the silver portions, she squinted at the black sections and sure enough there were numbers printed, but in black color.

 _Who came up with that idea?_

She scoffed and called forth her seiðr. She let the seiðr pool in her hands, till both her hands were glowing with the light pink color of her magic. She released the seiðr and let it form in to a small ball. It was one of the simplest things to do according to her instructor but she had always had trouble with it. Her strengths lay in the art of moving things with her seiðr and almost nothing else, especially creating anything, including a light source. But then again, it was supposedly common for people to only be able to do a select few things with their seiðr. The only ones she knew of, who could use seiðr for a multitude of things were her paternal aunt who lived on Vanaheimr, her teacher and the royal family, barring King Thor. She was sure there were others but she had never met any seiðr-user outside of her class or family.

She let the glowing balls go close to the black painted section above her and looked for any glowing numbers or runes or anything. Sure enough, the number '3' lit up from the array of numbers printed. She continued the process with each area till she remembered the entire sequence. It was complicated, containing both numbers, runes and other symbols. If she had a parchment with her, she could have written it down somehow, but she had to depend on her memory. She was yet to learn conjuring spells. Chanting the sequence under her breath, Sol climbed up to her brother and told him the code. She continued to mumble it under her breath in case he asked for it again.

Kari nodded once he got the code and set to work on converting it into a proper frequency. He asked for it almost two or three more times before he could come up with two possible solutions and inputted both. It was finally the second combination that lit up the panel with green color and the section in front of them melted away to let them enter the satellite.

"Oh, thank the norns!" Sol exclaimed as she walked in. "I thought I would forget the code."

"You didn't. Good job." Brunn said, patting the girl's back and looked around at the brightly lit interior. The place was filled with machines and display boards and lots of wires. She could not make head or tail out of the whole mess. But apparently Kari could. The boy went straight to the level below them and to a multitude of screens and keypads and some glowing things that she could not understand.

Pointing to a glass cased area to their left, he said, "That's the teleportation portal, but we can't access it."

"So, what are you going to do?" Sol asked.

"Send a message to the central unit. Since Asgard is gone, it should be now in the hands of Vanaheimr."

"Good. I like Vanaheimr." Brunn said gruffly, thinking about all the time she used to spend on that realm. It was like her second home. She wondered if some of her local friends still stayed there.

"Everyone likes Vanaheimr." Kari said with a shrug.

"You are biased because you are Vanir." Sol pointed out and Kari stuck his tongue out at her.

"You are half-Vanir. You should be biased too."

"I'm half-Aesir too."

Shaking his head, Kari went on to fiddle with some dials and switches and slid out a panel to type out a similar message to the one he had sent before to Vanaheimr and Alfheimr. With any luck, this message would reach faster than the one he had already sent and they could be on their way to an actual civilization.

"Done!" he exclaimed after a few minutes.

"Now what?"

"Now we wait. There should be some sort of acknowledgement soon enough. That is, hoping that the dust issue has not damaged enough back home."

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Vanaheimr_

"…and you are absolutely sure about this?" Princess Idunn asked the holographic figure in front of her.

"Absolutely." Came the reply. "I will let you know if anything changes but as of now there is no information in this regard."

Idunn nodded and smiled, "Alright. Thank you, Draupnir."

"Do not thank me yet, Idunn. Will you let me know if you obtain any information about them? I would like to help if I could. And do inform me when King Thor comes to visit you. I would like an audience with him if it is possible."

"Yes, of course I would." With a polite nod, she waved her hand and the connection broke off immediately. She looked at the pocket watch tied around her left wrist. There were only a handful of hours left before the two day deadline given by Thor would be up and he would be visiting them in search of information. She wished they had at least some sort of clue about his people.

The princess sighed in frustration as she sat down in a nearby chair. Ever since Thor had left, she had been in constant touch with the Elves of Alfheimr. She had requested them to search their space for any signs of escape pods or anything that could point to the surviving Aesir. But there had been absolutely nothing in the area. They had even said that the jump point from their end had only broken off the connection and there had been no indication that something had come through that area at all.

So, if the escape pods didn't go to Alfheimr, then where did they go?

Of course, there was one horrible possibility that the pods were destroyed in the resulting blast wave from the destruction of the mother ship. That was a situation that she knew Thor had already prepared himself for, if the look on his face when they had told him that the jump point was destroyed was anything to go by. She herself did not want to think that whatever remained of Asgard was what was scattered over the realms. Despite being Vanir, she had always had a close connection with Asgard due to her Aunt Frigga. Idunn even had her famed Golden Apples grown over there! Her poor garden! But she could not mourn for the beauty of her garden when there were lives in the balance.

Idunn looked around her at the understaffed communication center that she was currently sitting in. The staff were running around, trying to get things under order, checking up on fellow Vanir living on other realms. It was total chaos. She knew they all were actively avoiding the desk she was sitting at and why wouldn't they? None of them were high level staff members who had any experience of interacting with the royal family. The Communications Master and his assistant, both had not survived the Titan's plan and now the whole thing was under the wing of one of the older members of the division. A competent but grumpy fellow.

A beeping noise in the background was grating at her ears and she growled at the passing staff member, "What in the name of Helheimr is that incessant sound?"

The young girl jumped at the sudden outburst and hurried over to the panel from where the sound was coming, all the while apologizing to the princess.

"Master Valthjof!" the girl called out, her eyes widened in surprise.

"What do you want child?" a gruff, old man came hobbling over to her. He was one of the shortest person Idunn had ever seen but his attitude made up for what he lacked in height. When they were children, Idunn and her siblings used to actively avoid Valthjof whenever possible. They hadn't been all that successful as he had been appointed as their tutor and those five years were still counted as the worst five years of their lives.

"This sign… it has been…" the girl stammered and Idunn wondered if the poor girl was a new recruit or a trainee.

"What sign? Speak clearly…" the white haired man trailed off as he looked at the screen and whispered loudly, "Impossible. This is absolutely impossible. It cannot be."

"What cannot be?" Idunn asked, as she got up to look at the screen. She thanked her lucky stars that she had actually paid attention during her classes and now could figure out what the red blinking meant. It was an emergency signal. Someone out there was in trouble. But that was not what held her attention. It was the symbol and the name that flashed in red that shocked her. When Thor had said it, she had not believed it as much, but now… she needed to confirm it.

"Master Valthjof, please explain."

"What did I teach you for?" the old tutor muttered under his breath and pointed out the runes written in black. "This is obviously an emergency call. This is the category of the vessel that is sending out the signal."

"An Asgardian skiff." Idunn noted. "But where did a skiff come from?"

"Who knows? But that is not the impossible part. This is." The man pointed to the symbol and name in red and said, "It's the symbol of the Valkyries. How can that be?"

"And the name?"

"Brunnhilde." The master read. "That is the name of the last ever Leader of the Valkyrior. If this has been activated on an Asgardian skiff that could only mean that the code of the Valkyrie has been used, but that is impossible. We were informed that the entire Valkyrior had died a gruesome death. What foe could do this, we know not. But this should be impossible."

"And yet it is not." Idunn said with a grin. "Cousin Thor did mention that there was one Valkyrie with the group of Asgardian survivors. Maybe they got hold of a skiff and she set off the alarm? Where is the signal coming from? Can you tell?"

"Svartálfaheimr," the girl answered, pointing to the numbers at the left top corner.

"What are they doing there?"

"I know not, but Master Valthjof, you are to keep me or one of my siblings updated of any changes on this. Try to send a message to them if such a thing is possible. I have to inform my brother at once. Tell this to no one."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Idunn almost ran all the way to the throne room, completely forgetting that she could simply open a portal and reach her brother. But people often forget the simplest things at times of excitement. After scaring the Minister that her brother was talking to and taking a few moments to catch her breath and contain her excitement, she told all that had happened, to Freyr and Freyja.

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Freyja exclaimed with a grin. "We could send a rescue team to Svartálfaheimr. Thor said there should be about a hundred people."

"We should first inform Thor. He requires some good news currently." Freyr said with glee. He whipped out the communications device and sent a message, hoping that Thor would receive and see it before the two days were over. Hopefully, whatever time zone Midgard worked on, would not actually hinder his older cousin.

The three of them retired into his office and at once started to draw up plans for the Asgardians. They knew that Vanaheimr would support their decision, not only because they were royalty but also because of the numerous times Asgard had protected them over the centuries. They were halfway done through their plans when one of the guards announced a visitor.

Idunn recognized the visitor as the same girl whom she left with Valthjof in the communications center. She was clutching a piece of paper in her hand and walked slowly towards them, all the while trying to get her breathing under control.

"My King, My Princesses." She bowed to them and smoothened out her skirts.

"Yes?" Freyr asked.

"I have a message from Master Valthjof. He was in the process of sending a reply to their message when we received a transmission from one of the satellites in Svartálfaheimr. It is direct from the satellite instead of the skiff like the previous emergency beacon." She informed them, handing the piece of paper that contained the message to Freyr.

"This is from the Asgardians?" Idunn asked.

"Yes, Your Highness. We suspect that the emergency beacon was sent maybe yesterday but either due to the recent events or some issue with the network, we did not receive it till now. This new message is however sent directly from the satellite and is sent under the emergency protocols."

"Perhaps someone there is well versed in communications systems." Freyja suggested. "What does it say, brother?"

"They did send the emergency signal from the skiff yesterday along with a message. However, they have now commandeered a somewhat working Dark Elves' ship and taken it to the satellite from where they have sent this message. There are about 112 of them, mostly common folk, requesting assistance. Signed – The Valkyrie."

"We should reply immediately. Who knows what condition they are in?" Freyja said in worry.

"Yes, yes." the king agreed and said, "Let us go to the Communications Center."

"If everything is as it is supposed to be, then Thor should be here in another two hours. Mayhap by then we could get better information about the Asgradians." Freyja said as she created a portal and they stepped through.


	13. Chapter 13

**(A/N - Hey guys! Happy New Year! How'd it go?  
Anyway, here's the next chapter and it's smaller than the other chapters, but the second half of the chapter was getting a bit out of control and was too big to fit in here. So, I cut it short. Lemme know how you guys find this one.)**

 ** _CHAPTER 13_**

 _Location: Avengers Facility, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

Scott hummed softly as Cassie finally fell asleep on his chest. After waiting for some time, he carefully placed her on the bed and tucked her in. It had been difficult getting her to sleep and it had taken him retelling every happy and funny story about Maggie before Cassie had stopped insisting for 'one more story' and fallen asleep. At least she hadn't cried like the previous night. But that could have been because she had a good day with the other children, designing and then making the little gift for Thor that they all had momentarily forgotten their problems that brought them all together.

Scott treaded softly into the next room. Despite what Hank Pym had said about the Starks, Tony had been nice to Scott and his family. Even when Scott wasn't being nice to him. After all, it was Stark's fault that he had ended up in house arrest. Tony had even given him, Jim and Cassie their own suite. The guy really had a lot of suites built in this place that was only supposed to be a training facility. Based on what Scott had seen of the place, it looked like a giant house built for different families rather than a hostel for Avengers, which it technically was.

"She finally went to sleep." Scott announced as he searched for his hoodie. He was sure he had left it somewhere near the bed. He and Jim were sharing the room since they all wanted to be near each other and Jim had graciously taken the couch, which almost looked as comfortable as the bed. Finally finding his hoodie, Scott said, "I'm going to the common area. I think everyone is still there. Coming?"

Today had been a 'moping day', as Scott dubbed it. The Avengers had done nothing but look lost as they relived all their losses. Tony had busied himself with the two aliens, working on the satellite thing; Bruce had spent the day staring at the news channels; Natasha and Clint had spent the entire day sparring with each other or watching the news along with Bruce; Steve had actually spent the day hitting his punching bag till he cracked his knuckles and was dragged out by Natasha. Thor had been the one actually moping and looking as lost as anyone could possibly look, sitting on the stairs of the outdoor sparring area in a grey hoodie with storm clouds lurking above him. Literally. That had been cool to witness and too depressing too and Scott had left the area immediately.

Rhodey and Pepper were the only ones who had left the house to go to wherever they worked. Everyone else had sort of just been there, not doing anything, occasionally coming up with some idea for going to that alien planet to get information. All in all, nothing much had moved except that the satellite for Thor had been completed and the kids had also finished their little self-assigned project of making something for Thor. Scott himself had taken the day to explore their temporary house.

Scott pulled the hoodie on, waiting for an answer. When none came, he frowned. He was sure he had seen Jim on the couch when he came into the room and unless Jim had collected that many clothes at the far end of the couch to look like him… nope, it was Jim.

"Jim?" Scott repeated and realized that his friend was staring into nothing, his hands closed in a tight fist. The superhero went to stand in front of his friend and asked, "You okay, buddy?"

"Huh? Yeah?" Jim looked up at Scott, as if just realizing that he wasn't alone in the room.

Scott sat down on the lounge chair next to the couch and said, "I asked if you were okay."

"You know," Jim sighed, "as cops we always tell victims how sorry we are for their loss or how it would get better, blah, blah, blah. That's all a lie. We only want answers. Most of us don't know what it's like and now… how could I… we were so wrong. It doesn't get better." Jim looked sullenly at the engagement ring clasped in his hands. How much ever he had tried to not think about what had happened, it just wouldn't leave him alone.

"Jim…"

"You know, I feel like she'll just come walking in, yelling at me to help out with the dishes or something. But I look and she isn't there. She's just… she won't ever…" Jim hiccupped and rubbed the tears out of his eyes.

"Yeah, I know the feeling." Scott said softly. While roaming around the house, he had just expected one of the Pyms to turn up and scold him for staying so near to a Stark. The fact that it didn't happen had only haunted him further. "Buddy, I don't know what will happen but…"

"How do you do it? How are you so calm? None of the others are."

Scott huffed. "I'm not. I'm thinking of each of them every single second but I'm also so very confused and I know Cassie and you are too. Being here, with the Avengers, is the only way to get some answers, some revenge and hopefully closure too, if we are lucky. That's the only reason I can keep my cool throughout the day. These people are strong and powerful and they have answers, but they are also suffering right now. I keep thinking that if I let myself think about Maggie or Hope or anyone else, I'm going to lose it. There needs to be someone who is not beating themselves up. If I can be that person now, then maybe I can give the others some hope and later, I'll let myself… think about all of this."

"Okay," Jim said after some time with a little smile. Wearing his ring, he said, "If she could see me now, Maggie would definitely kick my ass."

"Yeah, she would." Scott laughed and got up. "So, coming to the common room?"

Jim shrugged and got up to follow Scott out of the room, while Scott told some crazy story about his new faulty suit that had made him stuck as a middle school kid for some time and how he and Hope had snuck into and out of Cassie's school to retrieve his original suit.

X-X-X

"What is with you Terrans and annoying music?" Rocket yelled over the music that blasted loudly in the lab.

"My taste in music is amazing. Shut up!" Tony replied as he typed a command. "Friday, turn it down a notch."

The volume lowered and both Rocket and Nebula sighed in relief. Rocket checked over the small satellite that he had built. It was technically only a signal enhancer. The Terran satellites didn't have the sort of power required to tap into and enhance the universal network signal. But thankfully most of the items that Rocket required, were easily available either with Tony or Shuri or on The Benatar. Shuri had personally come to give the items and get a look on how alien tech worked. Currently, she had gotten permission from Tony to explore the lab while Rocket looked over his creation and Tony and Nebula discussed the types of satellites that Earth had.

"I liked the music!" Shuri said, poking her head in from the other room that she was exploring.

"Finally! Someone who appreciates my music." Tony grumbled.

"I want your playlist." Shuri said as she picked up some half completed machine. "What's this? Lemme guess… is this a laser here?"

"Yeah." Tony said, looking up to see what she was talking about. "That's from one of my old suits. I was enhancing it to fit into my latest suit, but then I got the idea for something better. Don't tell Pepper or she'll kill me."

"May I?" Shuri asked, sitting down next to Tony with the equipment.

"Knock yourself out." Tony went back to discussing with Nebula and occasionally making sure that Rocket didn't blow something up. It wasn't that he didn't trust the little guy's knowledge. The raccoon had some serious skill, just like Shuri, but he didn't like random people in his lab and currently there were three of them in there. He could have easily taken this little group in one of the spare labs but most of his favorite tools and items were kept in this lab and he didn't want to keep moving around all the time. As a result, he had locked away most of his sensitive projects and all of his bots were on high alert.

"Miss Pepper has returned from the office, boss." Friday announced and went back to keeping her silent vigil over the house.

"Thanks, girl. Let her know where I am."

"Already did."

Nebula looked at the ceiling and smiled. "I like your A.I."

"Yeah. She is amazing, isn't she?" Tony preened like a proud parent.

As Smurfette turned to Rocket, Tony felt Shuri lean in and whisper, "She isn't just an ordinary interface, is she? She is more… developed. Like a… like a… child, I guess? Learning from her surroundings?"

Tony looked impressed as he turned to face Shuri. No one had ever guessed it so quickly or even guessed at all. "How did…"

"How did I know?" Shuri asked with a smirk. "Haven't you heard? I am a genius."

Tony smirked and said, "I like you."

"I'm honored." Shuri said, tinkering with the machine in her hands. "No, I really am. I heard it's hard to please you."

The screen in front of them lit up with the words – _Boss is the very definition of 'hard to please'._

"Friday! Do you want me to donate you to the local university?"

 _You wouldn't!_ Even the written words oozed sarcasm.

"She understands sarcasm?" Shuri asked with a laugh.

"Among other things." Tony replied, looking at how fast Shuri worked.

"Emotions?"

"Maybe."

"No way! Are you serious?" Shuri asked in surprise, keeping aside the equipment. At Tony's smug expression, she laughed and said, "I want that!"

"Make one for yourself. Genius like you, sure you can figure it out." Tony picked up the laser gun that she had been working on and smiled. "Nice job by the way."

"You should see my lab." Shuri offered. "This is nothing. It was actually pretty simple. Did you purposely leave it out here for me?"

Tony shrugged, glad that the girl was intelligent enough to pick on that. She was exceptionally brilliant and reminded him of himself when he was younger and her enthusiasm was exactly like Peter's. If Peter were here, these two could become fast friends. Thinking about Peter made him upset and he was glad for the distraction that came in the form of Dummy.

"What's this?" Rocket asked as he looked over Dummy.

"Not what, who." Tony corrected and introduced Dummy to the others. Friday must have realized that he actually liked the three in his lab. She was perceptive like that, especially since he hadn't said any of his code words to warn her.

"Another A.I.?" Nebula asked. "This one has a body."

"Why is he called Dummy?" Shuri asked, trying to get close to Dummy, without getting hit by the swinging claw.

"Yes, another A.I. and I named him when I was 15. Also, his first act was to drop my college project and break it into a million pieces. Hence, Dummy." Tony explained. "Dummy, don't be rude, shake hands." Tony watched smugly as the aliens seemed enchanted by Dum-E. They obviously didn't expect this level of tech on Earth.

"His name really is Dummy?" Shuri asked skeptically as she enthusiastically shook the bot's claw.

"Well, it's actually Dum-E, but I end up calling him Dummy. Not much of a difference anyway." Tony said, handing over the laser gun. "Go keep this properly. Don't drop it and send the others." Tony had gotten Friday to keep his bots out of line of sight as long as there were people other than those whom he trusted in his lab. But he liked these three people. They were smart, intelligent and good company, so far, and he was itching to show off, especially to Shuri. Only if Pepper were here to see him, she would set him straight. But she wasn't here and he could preen and show off as much as he wanted.

"There are others?" Rocket asked, leaving his project behind in favor of this new discovery. "I have seen A.I. in some of the advanced parts of the universe but I have never seen them actually interacting on their own accord like this. They all are created to serve only as a help and nothing else or to act as mercenaries."

"Actually," Nebula interrupted, "most of the places just fuse mechanics with living people. Remove the emotions and input higher degree of knowledge retention and you get the perfect killers. Like me. Or Rocket."

Tony looked at the two alien cyborgs in front of him and a million questions raced through his mind including whether he could take a look at them. But that would be rude. He remembered how Vision had never liked to be prodded and knew that these two wouldn't appreciate being asked that.

Shuri masked her horror and said, "That's just misuse of technology. I… that's…"

"Horrible, disgusting, yeah, we know." Rocket mumbled defensively and looked at the two new robots whizzing towards them. Wanting to move on from the uncomfortable topic, Rocket pointed at the two bots and asked, "So, who are these two?"

"Yeah, umm…" Tony coughed and motioned the two forward, "this is U and Butterfingers."

The three of them looked at Tony and Shuri said, "You've got to be kidding me. One of the most brilliant minds in the world and you can't come up with a decent name? I thought B.A.R.F. was a one-time thing but it's not."

"Well, Butterfingers drops everything you hand him and U was named when I was drunk and wanted him to fetch something." Tony said with a shrug.

"So, why don't you improve them?" Shuri asked as Butterfingers dropped the screwdriver he was holding and bent to pick it up, only to drop it again.

"It gives them personality and it's funny to watch." Tony replied and looked at the computer screen as it made some noise. "Ok, fun time is over, kiddos. Time to get back to work. What do you want to do with the enhancer, Rocket?"

"You got through to the satellite that we can leech off?" Rocket asked, climbing on to a chair to look at the screen.

"Yes," Shuri replied. "It is actually my satellite. By that I mean, Wakanda's satellite. It's more enhanced than the others and you don't have to go through Government to get access to it."

"I don't have to go through Government anyway." Tony said.

"Yes, I get it. You are a great hacker, but why do the unnecessary when you have me?" Shuri asked as she brought out her work pad and typed something into it. "I'll give you access now and then we can go and attach it."

"Great." Rocket said. "Do you have tape?"

"For what?"

"No reason. I just want tape. I'm all out."

"Dum-E, get some tape!" Tony hollered.

"Okay, done." Shuri said excitedly. "Let's go? I have never been in an alien spaceship."

"Come on." Rocket said as he swiped the tape from Dum-E and picked up the enhancer.

The four of them were planning to go to the location of Wakanda's satellite in The Benatar and attach the enhancer to the satellite. It was a simple enough job but Tony and Shuri had insisted on tagging along. Why wouldn't they? It wasn't every day that they got to ride in a spaceship and visit an orbiting satellite.

It took the four of them around a minute of travel time before they found themselves stationed outside the Wakandan satellite.

"How fast is this thing?" Shuri asked in awe as she stroked the control panel.

"As fast as we want it to be." Rocket said smugly. It was now his time to show off. "It was pretty slow actually just now. We can go faster but Tony said something about Terra monitoring things and all that. Didn't want to raise any red flags considering we are going to stay put for some time."

"Nice." Shuri smirked. "So, is the invisibility shield anything like the one we have? I've got to check it out."

"When we go back, you can do all that." Nebula said monotonously as she brought out some circular things from the storage area.

"Hey, my ship, my rules. You can't just give permission." Rocket said indignantly. He turned to Shuri and said, "What she said."

"There is no one monitoring for life forces out here, right?" Nebula asked.

"No." Shuri replied. "Not on my satellite anyway."

Nebula nodded and passed around the circular objects. "These are space suits. They can be attached to almost any surface and will create a holographic suit around you. You can breathe in it too. Just don't take them off while we are out there."

"Obviously." Tony said.

"Just saying." Nebula said, pointedly looking at Rocket, while he looked away innocently.

"I wanna test these too." Shuri said, looking over the suit that was given to her.

"Right there with ya." Tony muttered.

"Let's go." Rocket said, holding the enhancer and tape in one hand and walking towards the exit.

Shuri smiled as she let go of the spaceship and floated out into the space. It was surreal and mostly felt like a dream. The holographic suit was something that she really needed to look into and the space ship and all the alien tech on the ship. She was pretty sure Tony was also eager to do the same. She did see him eye some of the items on the ship.

They were all tethered to the spaceship as they floated towards the satellite. Rocket had said that he only needed to attach the enhancer, activate it and then calibrate it if needed. She wished she could have seen him make the enhancer but he had mostly been hovering over it and would snap if any of them came too close.

Another thing she wanted to test were all the various A.I.s that Tony had. She knew that he used some sort of A.I. for most of his tech. That much her brother had told her. What she hadn't known was that his house was actually run by one of the A.I.s and a really smart one at that. She needed to know how he got the A.I. to not only behave emotionally like a human would but also how to grasp knowledge at the level they did. She knew how to make a basic A.I., but this was another level. And yet the smart man had only just made a nanotech suit when she had made one years ago. She couldn't understand that.

It took them some time but they were finally in and Rocket and Nebula went to work while Tony looked around and Shuri looked through some of the data collected by the satellite.

"You designed this?" Tony asked.

"Yeah. I had help sometimes but it's mostly me. And a lot of vibranium." Shuri said with a smile. "How'd do you think an A.I. up here would be like?"

"Disaster." Tony replied. "Never let an A.I. do all the work. You need to keep interfering or there is a pretty good chance of things going wrong. M&Ms?"

Shuri looked at the bag of M&Ms that Tony offered her and took a few. "So, are you telling me that Friday doesn't do all your work?"

"Nope." Tony said. "All the vibranium in the world and you still couldn't create an A.I.?"

Shuri rolled her eyes and said, "I'm only sixteen. Give me some time. I'll create something far better than Friday. What had you done when you were sixteen?"

"Created Dum-E, won the 4th Annual M.I.T. Robot Design Award, started writing the prototype for JARVIS, Friday's predecessor. Do you want me to go on?"

Shuri shrugged and said, "I made the Black Panther nano suit, made improvements in most of Wakanda's weapons and flight systems. Do you want _me_ to go on?"

"Are you two done?" Nebula asked with a scowl. "We want to know where we can connect the wires."

"Right." Shuri said. "I'll tell you." She looked through the circuit system schematics on her screen to find the best place to attach the enhancer.

"By the way," Tony said, determined to have the last word, even if it was with a child, "many of the weapons you have are based on Stark weapons designs and I was talking of a time when the best tech available was floppy disks and too heavy desk computers."

Shuri scoffed as she showed Nebula where to attach the enhancer and said to Tony, "Whatever you say old man." The two continued to exchange quips till Rocket announced that he was done.

"Did you seriously just tape the enhancer to my satellite?" Shuri asked in horror as she saw the haphazard silver tape that held the enhancer in place.

"Yup." Rocket replied, typing away on his communicator. "Sit tight. This is gonna take a few minutes."

X-X-X

Steve slowly unwrapped the bandage that Bruce had put around his knuckles earlier in the day. The otherwise off-white bandage was colored pink in some areas thanks to the little blood that had escaped before his superior healing could kick in. He was grateful for everyone's concern but it was unnecessary. He was capable of taking care of himself and them helping him out only served to remind him of the time Peggy had taken care of him after the first time he thought he had lost Bucky. These days, his losses just seemed to keep piling up. He wondered how much longer till he would get buried under all that.

Disposing off with the soiled bandages, Steve made his way to the bar and searched for Thor's not-so-secret stash of Asgardian liquor. It was the only thing that affected the super soldier and was basically hands off for everyone else ever since the time Tony and Bruce tested its properties and found it to be near fatal for normal humans in its concentrated form. Diluted, it could make them all very, very drunk in a matter of minutes.

The captain settled on one of the more comfortable chairs to observe the others. His rigorous exercise had cleared his mind a bit and he was no longer feeling as low as he had been throughout the day.

Natasha was sandwiched between Clint and Bruce, all three of them drinking some Russian liquor that Natasha had managed to get from somewhere. No one knew how it came to be in her possession and no one cared either. The TV was playing the mindless cartoon that the children had been watching till Laura had finally declared it past bed time and had herded them out. Scott and Jim had come in some time back. They both seemed to be in better spirits than the others but Steve could read people correctly most of the time and knew that it was all an act. Still, he appreciated the effort.

Steve looked over to the god of thunder sitting on his recliner as usual. Bruce had managed to drag the morose god indoors when the sun had set. Apparently, Thor had only been interested in seeing the sun rise and set. Steve had never seen Thor actually shed a tear, but today had been the first time he had witnessed Thor cry. It had been when Natasha had dragged Steve away from his punching bag. They had passed through the hallway that led outdoors. There, Thor had sat on the stairs, his body hunched over, and his frame shaking with what could only be sobs. Bruce had sat by his side the whole time, a comforting hand on the god's shoulder. It was only later when Bruce was taking care of Steve's little injury that Steve asked about the earlier scene and Bruce had informed him that all the losses of his family, his home planet and his people was finally hitting Thor. Steve could relate to how Thor felt, however different their circumstances might have been, the loss was still the same.

Now Thor was watching the cartoon playing on the TV dispassionately as he played with his new accessory. It had been a little before dinner time when the kids had ran in enthusiastically and went straight to Thor. Lila had taken the braided hair that Thor kept with him (Steve still could not digest that part) and after some time had presented Thor with a silver glass pendent. It was obvious that Tony had helped them get that piece. Inside the pendent was the braided hair. Thor had smiled and taken the necklace with such reverence that they could all feel the weight of the importance of that moment on them.

"What'd I miss?" Tony sauntered in with his usual flamboyance, his personality over shadowing the somber aura of the room.

Steve felt himself relax immediately. Whatever their differences, their mistakes and their pasts, he knew that somehow Tony made everyone else feel safe with his presence. The same went for everyone else on their team. It was such a stark difference from when they all had first met on the Helicarrier that it was almost laughable. If back then someone had told him that he could ever feel safe with a seemingly spoilt brat, two spies and assassins, a scientist with horrible anger management issues and an alien god, Steve would have preferred to go back under the ice. But now these same people were his family. The Captain had missed this feeling over the past few years on the run. Being in the same room, having a common goal, somehow nothing else mattered anymore. Fury had once told him long ago that the team was made up volatile individuals who would always need a push to work as a team. Back then, the thing that brought them together was Agent Coulson's death and now it was the death of literally half of the universe. Steve felt his confidence return. Together, the Avengers could do anything. He knew it. All these years they had been separated from each other and everything had fallen through horribly, but no more. He had already forgiven Tony for what had happened and hopefully Tony would do the same. Then they could keep the team together like it was meant to be.

"Reruns of Tom & Jerry." Romanoff answered. "How was the space trip?"

"Successful." Rocket said as he made a beeline to Thor. "Gimme the communicator. I have to fine tune it, then you can talk to your friends on Vana-Vana."

Thor looked anxiously over Rocket's shoulder as the raccoon tinkered a bit with the device. "Thank you, sweet rabbit." He said when Rocket handed over the device back to the god. Immediately, there were a couple of pings that everyone understood as messages being received. Thor smiled widely as he read the messages.

"So?" Shuri asked, sitting on one of the couches. "What's the news?"

Thor chuckled and said, "My cousins have made contact with my people. I must visit Vanaheimr post-haste."

"Is Brunnhilde okay?" Bruce asked in concern, sitting up straight.

"I believe so. I will know more once I go to Vanaheimr." Thor stood up and beamed at them all. "I will return soon." With that, lightning ran up and down his body and soon he was covered in his usual regal armor and walked out to the garden area.

When the outside lit up with the familiar rainbow colors, Tony muttered, "I should just give up on my lawn."

"Or you could assign one area for Bifrost use." Steve suggested and waited impatiently for how Tony would react to being spoken directly to. Till now, they both had avoided talking directly as much as possible. But Steve could not handle it anymore. Tony, just like Howard, was pretty good in holding on to grudges. Steve was not. Unless it came to Hydra. Then he could hold it forever.

"Or I could do that." Tony said with a nod with a relieved look towards Steve. His ego would never allow him to be the first to break their long standing silence and he was grateful, though he would never say it, that Steve broke it first.

Steve smiled at the TV, pretending to be amused by the antics of the characters and any remaining tension was soon gone from the room. With Thor's exuberant departure and what was hopefully the start of mending bridges between the two leaders, things were just maybe starting to get better. Or as better as they could be in the current situation.

"So, we are talking now?" Clint asked amusedly and just like that the tension was broken and everyone chuckled.

Steve kept aside his almost untouched drink as they all started to talk to each other and involved the latest additions to their group. There was no need for the drink anymore. The team, now once again united, acted as the balm for his heartache. He saw the others too doing away with their respective drinks and knew that they all felt the same. Steve settled in comfortably as the Ant-Man launched into some crazy story about how he fought a villain inside a toy train set.

Steve kept an eye on Tony and most importantly, his body language. Having spent years living under the same roof, Steve had learnt how Tony would behave with the people he truly trusted. As the night progressed and they all moved on from storytelling to bouncing off ideas for their next step, Tony relaxed with his legs crossed in front of him, his body facing the others and his usual mask of indifference set aside for the time being. As Tony continued to respond directly to Steve, the Captain finally knew that they could move on from the past. Obviously, he knew that he and Tony still needed to talk. There were far too many things that could cause misunderstandings between the two, but right now it was all okay.


	14. Chapter 14

**(A/N - So, this chapter is all about Loki and how the Warriors Three and Sif are starting to get some information about what happened. Hope you guys like it. :D)**

 ** _CHAPTER 14_**

 _Location: Somewhere in the universe_

Loki groaned softly as he felt someone lift him up and move him into a sitting position. At least that eased his breathing a bit. His mind felt wooly and his insides throbbed with pain. The fact that his outer body seemed unaffected while everything else inside him seemed to be on fire, clued Loki in on the fact that he had probably over used his seiðr and his body had shut down as a result while his seiðr renewed itself. Opening his eyes slowly, he looked around to understand what was going on.

"Are you awake?" Fandral asked, his face inches away from Loki's.

"Unfortunately." Loki replied drily and pulled himself up straighter as Fandral leaned back and Hogun handed him a healing stone. He always had a healing stone with him, no matter what. The stone's seiðr helped Loki's own to regain its footing and soon the pain eased and the seiðr absorbed the energy around them. He handed the stone back to Hogun, not wanting to use it up completely and started to stand up but was held down by Fandral.

"It is better if you let yourself heal first and not move around." Fandral said, removing his hand hesitantly from Loki's shoulder.

Loki rubbed his forehead and asked, "What happened?" The last thing he remembered was taking on yet another pathway and thinking that he should probably stop for a little while. His energy had been pretty low at that point and taking up any more travel before he was well would be hazardous to everyone's health.

"Well, we landed here abruptly and all of us fell down from the sky. Literally. But you never got up." Fandral explained, pointing to a clearing a bit ahead of them. "Hogun and I dragged you to this tree stump and sat you down."

"Where is everyone else?" Loki asked. That description sounded like his seiðr had been dangerously low during the travel and if they had dropped out of the sky, then that meant that he must have unconsciously steered them towards the nearest safe area to land and stopped the travel.

"Sif and Volstagg have gone to scout and find out where we are and Heimdall is taking a round of this area to see if we are in any danger." Hogun informed in his usual quiet manner. "What happened back there?"

"Ah! You are awake, my prince." Heimdall's voice came from behind Loki and the prince cursed himself for not being more vigilant of his surroundings. It could have been an enemy!

"Yes, it seems so." Loki replied, this time getting up successfully and daring Fandral to stop him again. The charismatic blond only shook his head at Loki's antics. "Alright, we need to see where we are really." Loki let his seiðr flow out of him only for it come back with a force as if being snapped into position. He groaned and almost doubled over at the force. Right. His seiðr was nowhere close to being recovered and was now angry with him for overlooking that.

"Maybe you should sit down and not use seiðr when you are obviously fatigued." Heimdall suggested as if talking to a child. Sometimes dealing with the younger prince was even more difficult than dealing with a child. At least a child tires after some time. The prince would probably be arguing and quipping even on his death bed.

"There is no need for that." Loki said in irritation at having been caught out. "Which way did Sif and Volstagg go?"

"That way." Fandral said, pointing to their right. "We saw a small ship heading that way and presumed that it might lead to civilization."

"Or an army base." Loki muttered and started walking towards the direction that Fandral pointed at. The other three looked at each other in annoyance and followed Loki.

As Loki tripped over a root and casually righted himself, Hogun huffed and said, "Perhaps we should wait for those two to return. We have been travelling for almost an entire Asgardian day without a break. We are tired, you probably more than us. Would it be so bad to take some rest?"

"I am fine." Loki grumbled. "And we can rest once we find those two and our whereabouts."

"Would it kill you to listen to us?" Fandral grumbled as he hopped over a few fallen branches.

"Usually, yes." Loki replied sarcastically. "Or have you forgotten the wonderful decisions you all took on Nix and almost got all of us killed?"

"That… was a mistake." Hogun replied while Heimdall chuckled. It had been entertaining to watch that fight and the confusion that Loki spread in their wake to allow them a swift escape.

"Exactly. Which is why we follow what I say from now on."

"You are far more difficult to handle without Thor acting as a buffer."

"Or a buffoon." Loki muttered under his breath.

"Talking like that about one's king can be considered treason." Fandral quipped, having heard Loki.

"See if I care." Came the reply as Loki quickened his pace in favor of reaching the civilization that was in front of them. Something about this place was somewhat familiar to him. Perhaps he had visited this planet before?

"I see Volstagg." Hogun said, pointing towards a fruit stall someplace to their left. Hogun frowned as he saw his friend converse with the stall owner and asked, "Are we not invisible?"

Loki frowned at the ground and said, "Not anymore and anyway I cannot protect you if you deliberately talk to someone outside of our group."

"Oh, there you are. You seem unwell, Loki." Sif said as she happened upon the foursome. "Volstagg and I were getting some fruits and water back for all of us." She hefted the two cans that she was holding. "We cannot understand the language so we do not yet know where we are."

His companions had been oddly cheerful ever since they had had taken some rest on that planet. Since then they had been irritating Loki with either being cheerful or being friendlier than they had been previously with him. It was throwing him for a loop. He wondered at what could motivate them to talk to someone like him. None of them had ever hid their dislike for them, it was only sometimes shrouded by their appreciation of his latest trickery and only when it aided them directly, outside a battlefield.

Fandral took one of the cans from Sif as she led them to Volstagg, who was arguing over the price of some fruits. The problem seemed to be the language more than Volstagg's reluctance to pay a high price. Loki smiled as he heard the language. He _had_ visited this planet before. This must be a new settlement, he thought to himself and interjected in the conversation with the fruit vendor before the voluminous warrior could insult the vendor with his actions.

"You know this language too." Hogun observed quietly once Loki had successfully purchased the fruits for them in exchange of some universal credits.

"Hmm." Loki nodded as he looked around. "Remember about four centuries ago I had gone on one of my longer travels?"

"You were gone for almost fifty years. Thor had been impossible to handle." Hogun agreed as they explored the streets.

"Yes, well, I had been travelling around outside the nine realms. This was one of the places I had visited." Loki explained with a fond smile. That had been one of his more enjoyable travels. He had learnt so much and met so many new species. It had been beyond what he could have imagined and it was only after Odin had sent at least ten summons and threatened to take away Loki's access to the restricted section of the library that he returned to Asgard.

"The people here are more or less peaceful," Loki continued, "and the culture is more knowledge oriented than even Alfheimr."

"No wonder you seem to like this place." Sif muttered.

As they passed a tall building somewhere in the middle of the city, Loki stopped to gaze at it and said, "The Central City of Wyvernedge is where we are. I knew I recognized this place. That must have been a new settlement. This planet has a history of settlements coming and going every few hundred years."

"So, this planet is called Wyvernedge? Or the city is called that?" Volsatgg asked.

"The planet." Loki replied and motioned them to continue moving forwards. "The people are called Wyverns. They live in the center of the city and are about half our height and are really pale thanks to the sun being pretty far away from this planet. Any other settlement is basically belonging to other species who come here to either study or stay permanently."

"Is there perhaps an inn or tavern where we could rest for a while?" Fandral asked, looking around at the many tall buildings.

Loki frowned at the ground and weighed the pros and cons in his head, which was getting heavier by the minute. He needed a safe place to stay and regain his energy and there was only one place he trusted enough to allow that. It looked like he needed to ignore the cons for now. Loki sighed and said, "Forget the inns, there is something better. Let me know if you wish to buy something to eat."

"Where are you taking us, Loki?" Heimdall asked, keeping pace with Loki. The others were following them, most of them holding various foods and drinks that Volstagg had insisted on buying. Somehow, by some miracle, Loki was yet to run out of credits.

"Somewhere safe to rest for a while." Loki answered cryptically as he navigated through the crowds and led them to what seemed the outskirts of the main city. They walked in silence for quite some time, each tired and hungry. After some time, they reached a river bank, where Loki led them towards a little village. Towards the end the end of the village, near the river, was a small reddish-brown cottage, decent enough for one person to live. Loki stopped in front of the small establishment and sighed.

"Who lives here?" Sif asked as she looked around for someone to come to them, but no one did. The area seemed deserted as if no one had lived there for years. There was a small garden next to the cottage but it was now overrun with wild plants.

Loki muttered a few things under his breath and as the door opened on its own accord, he said, "I do."

"What do you mean?" Volstagg asked, walking in behind Loki, into the house. The house looked good enough, except that it was covered in dust and he was sure he saw something slither away under one of the chairs.

Loki waved his hand and the dust disappeared, the lamps switched on and soon the room they were in, looked lived in. He would later pay for that little usage of his seiðr, as it was, his insides were starting to burn up again. He really needed to get some rest. "I stayed on this planet for almost two out of the five decades I was travelling. I could not live in an inn for so long, so I built this place. Now, there is a staircase just outside this room that leads to the below levels. Living quarters are down there. Go and make yourself at home. Just leave my room alone. You will understand which one is mine once you see it."

"What did you do here for two decades?" Sif asked as she followed Loki out of the room, into a dining area.

"Things." Loki said with a shrug as he kept the food items with him, on the table.

"Like?"

"I used to teach about our side of the universe to the locals. They love learning about new things and when they found out that I belonged to a part of the universe that they did not know of, they insisted me to take a few classes for them. That went on for about two decades before I went to the nearby sector and continued with my travels." Loki replied reluctantly.

After that, they all asked a few questions before lapsing into silence as they enjoyed their food. Soon enough Loki left them in favor of his bed. He needed his rest if they were continue towards Midgard. They were still pretty far away but at least now Loki knew all the easier ways to go home.

"He is being nice and hospitable." Volstagg muttered softly, making sure that Loki was out of hearing range.

"Because you all are being nice to him." Heimdall pointed out.

"We are always nice to him." Fandral said nonchalantly. "Well, most of the time." Heimdall stared at him and Fandral corrected, "Sometime? Come on! He is the one who makes it almost impossible to be civil around him."

"Do you really think it will work?" Volstagg asked skeptically.

"It should." Sif replied. "People do usually tend to be more honest and open if the others around them are." Sif frowned and added, "Then again, this is Loki. So he might just think that we are trying to get something from him."

"You are." Heimdall said in an accusatory tone.

"Come on, Heimdall." Fandral whined. "You know that Loki is hiding something and it is most probably important. Look, we know him since we were children. He had always kept information close to him and thinks that he will be able to take advantage of it in some manner that is beneficial to all, but many times it does not work out in his favor. If Thor were here, Loki might have told him whatever he is withholding, but with us, he doesn't trust us, so we need to do all this just to get him to share information."

"You also seem to know something." Sif guessed. "The last time we stopped for rest, something about the way you talked to Loki seemed as if you know more than we do – about Loki's situation – whatever that may be."

The four warriors stared at the former gatekeeper and Heimdall sighed and admitted, "I do know something that you do not and yes, it is important, but I do believe that Loki should be the one to tell the truth to you and not me. What I know is only an educated guess formulated by overhearing a private conversation. I may be wrong."

"But you don't think you are, do you?" Volstagg asked, leaning back in his chair. "You can tell us. You say it is important, then why not tell us? How are we to trust or follow him if we know he is hiding something?"

Heimdall looked pensively at each one of them and wondered whether he should tell them. He knew he should but he also meant what he had said – this was Loki's truth to tell – and yet, he knew that given the chance, Loki would never admit to what had happened, even if they had physical proof of his unwillingness to work with Thanos. Loki would rather die than admit that he had been a victim. Heimdall knew that. After all, he had seen multiple times when Loki had taken the blame for something just so no one would see him as a victim, whether it be of ridicule or something graver and Heimdall, for reasons still unknown to him, had never interfered and protected Loki from his own foolishness. Maybe he should do that. Loki was in too deep and would rather sink deeper than ask for help, even though many of his actions looked like a plea for help. Years ago, both Loki and Thor had parents and Heimdall had no reason to interfere. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case anymore and the gatekeeper was the only one left who was old enough to remember everything about the two brothers. This was why Heimdall nodded and told them, "You do need to know and I suspect that Thor too knows of this or has enough information to come to the same conclusion that I have."

"Which is?" Sif asked, leaning forward. All of the others too leaned in closer to the gatekeeper.

"What did you make of Loki's attempt on conquering Midgard?"

"It was ill devised. He did not have the ability to pull off something like that." Fandral replied immediately.

Hogun was staring at a painting on the wall behind Heimdall and sat up straight. "The Peace Treaty."

"Excuse me?" Sif said.

"When Vanaheimr, Alfheimr and Niflheimr were having trouble and were almost on the brink of war, Loki led the whole chain of events that ended in the Peace Trade Treaty."

"So, he is good at laws. We all knew that."

Hogun shook his head and said, "I am his assigned royal guard and so is Sif. We both were with him from the very beginning. Sif, do not tell me that Loki could not have taken over Midgard through negotiations alone."

Sif pursed her lips and agreed. "He did have the delegates of Niflheimr doing his bidding and back then Niflheimr hated Asgard and even till date, they follow the rules that he laid down. Somehow, just by talking, Loki had been able to change the tide of events. We were positive we would end up with an inter-realm war on our hands." Sif tapped the table with her fingernails and said thoughtfully, "If we are to go by that, then I have to assume that Loki could have entered into negotiations with Midgard and done whatever he wanted. But that beats his whole purpose. Negotiations like that would have never caught Thor's attention, but harming the people would and it did. Loki wanted to cause harm in front of Thor to taunt him."

"That perhaps was the case." Heimdall interjected. "But I have reason to believe that Loki might have also just wanted to call attention to himself."

"He was presumed dead." Volstagg said. "If he wanted attention, he could have just appeared in the palace and all the realms would have been talking about him. He did not need to go after the infinity stones or work with Thanos, just to get attention."

"What if he had no choice in the matter?" Heimdall suggested and the others frowned at him. "Please hear me out. I have cause to believe that Loki may not have been himself or was at least under some influence during his attack on Midgard."

"What cause do you talk of?"

"I had overheard a private conversation between Loki and Thor in which Loki had mentioned a few things that led me to believe that he is not entirely at fault for his doings. I was not immediately convinced but when Thanos attacked us… there are somethings that need to be witnessed by one's own eyes and this is one of those. In that moment, I could believe that working with Thanos was not Loki's idea."

"So, what are you saying? That Thanos forced Loki or influenced him to attack Midgard?" Sif asked. "Heimdall, in case you have forgotten, no one has ever been able to make Loki do something he didn't want to."

"What, by your standards, is the best way to capture something? Anything?" Heimdall asked the warriors.

"Frontal attack, surround the enemy and beat them down and weaken them and take what you are there for." Volstagg answered. "Why?"

"And what is Loki's way?" Heimdall asked and smiled a little as Sif's eyes widened.

"Hide and weaken the enemy's defense from within. He has done that a lot of times." Sif answered. "That is not what he did on Midgard. I had seen SHIELD's footage of his attack when I had gone to Midgard. He had not even disarmed anyone who attacked him. That is usually the first thing he does. What he did, was a frontal attack like we have always done and he always used to lecture us on how it is usually the worst way to go about things. He also never lets anyone injure him if he can help it and yet he was injured when he returned. Some of the injuries could have been avoided if the footage that I saw was accurate."

"Perhaps he tired of hiding like a coward and fighting and that is why he finally attacked like we always do. You make it sound like he deliberately did not use any of his usual techniques." Volstagg said with a frown.

Sif took a deep breath and looked like she was having indigestion. "What if he did? What if he deliberately… I don't know… maybe staged the whole thing. We know he loves drama. What if this was all some sort of gimmick to get attention?"

"He killed a lot of people." Fandral pointed out.

Hogun said drily, "I would not be surprised if Loki staged the attack. I have seen him do that before, albeit in a friendlier manner. During the peace negotiations, Loki made a whole show of doing away with some of the privileges that Asgard enjoyed and everyone was furious with him."

"I remember that." Sif nodded. "Our whole delegation was displeased to the point that they almost called the Allfather to remove Loki from his position. The only reason they could not do that was because Loki was their prince and giving away the privileges was the reason why Alfheimr agreed to majority of the treaty and Loki admitted to us that he knew that beforehand. He said that it was one of his favorite moves in Hnefatafl – to sacrifice something in order to tip the balance, make the opponent think that they are winning and then win the game." Sif looked at Fandral and Volstagg and explained, "We had to sit in with Loki at all times. There are some clauses that I can still repeat word for word. That is also how I learnt to play Hnefatafl."

"That is unfortunate." Fandral said in distaste. "Anyway, this method would work if Loki had to gain something out of all this, but he did not gain anything, did he?"

"He came home." Volstagg said.

"What?"

"For a year he had been missing and suddenly he appears out of nowhere and attacks Midgard? As soon as he made an appearance, Thor was sent to Midgard to retrieve Loki. Loki would know that. Everyone knows that only Thor can ever get Loki back from wherever he used to go off to and Thor is one of the few who can overpower Loki. If what Heimdall is saying is correct in any form, that Loki was influenced to work with Thanos, then he took the chance of getting Thor's attention and returning home."

Sif rolled her eyes and said, "Then why did he not cease all activities when Thor made contact with him. They could have returned as soon as Thor took him away from the Avengers. Yet, Loki continued to create havoc."

Hogun shrugged and said, "We do not have all the information, I think. We would need Loki to tell us the truth. He is the only one who knows why he did, what he did. As long as we are cordial with him, he will reciprocate. So, try not to annoy him. I am going to find someplace to rest."

"We all should rest." Sif said. "And we do not need to worry about intruders. This place belongs to Loki. I cannot even imagine the amount of wards that must be placed on this house."

"Remember his chambers?" Fandral asked with a laugh, as they all headed downstairs, the heavy conversation suspended for the time being. "Volstagg here literally flew across the hallway when he tried to access the chambers even after Loki telling him not to."

"This must be Loki's chambers." Hogun observed as they passed a simple brown colored door that was engraved with Loki's symbol – his horned helmet.

"I'm not touching it then." Volstagg grumbled and moved on to find someplace to rest.

The house, despite being for one person, was big enough to accommodate them all and then some. Then again, Loki had always liked extravagant things in his life and this place reflected that nature of his and yet was quite simple to look at. All of them found a bed or couch for themselves and laid down for some much needed rest. They stayed indoors for almost the entire day till the warriors voted for Heimdall to check up on Loki. He was the only one Loki wasn't snapping at every few moments during their travel, although that had changed slightly after they had left the other planet. Then again, Loki had seemed pretty withdrawn ever since their talks about Thanos and Loki's connection to the titan. Perhaps there was some truth to their earlier discussions.

"Is everyone ready to leave?" Loki asked as he entered the living room, one hand running over his face in tiredness.

"Are you?" Sif asked doubtfully. Loki did look he would keel over at any moment.

"Yes." Loki glared at her for asking that question. "I would not have asked if I weren't ready." Well, that was not true. He still needed some more time, preferably a whole day but he didn't want any of them to consider him unfit for the job. He had regained enough strength to continue without any more episodes. He just needed to be careful and make sure they took breaks whenever he needed them and none would suspect a thing.

"Shall we eat before we leave? Who knows when we will take the next break?" Volstagg asked, already bringing out the various foodstuffs that he had collected previously.

They ate in silence and Loki purposely did not entertain any of them. He had a feeling they wanted to ask him something and he didn't need to know the question to know he would not enjoy sating their curiosity. Soon enough, the tension got to him and he sighed and snapped, "Just ask! I tire of you all staring at me."

"Why did we stop here?" Fandral asked.

"Was it not you who asked to look around for an inn or tavern to rest?" Loki deflected, pushing away his food. He had lost his appetite, knowing what was coming. He always hated others questioning his thoughts or actions, unless they were genuinely curious and he was never sure of that when it came to his brother's annoying friends. Moreover, he never liked answering to them.

"Loki, you know what he means." Sif said irritably. "Why did we stop on this planet? Why did we fall down instead of walking as we usually do?"

"I'm sure the five of you could come up with a reasonable answer to that inane query." Loki looked at each of them and gritted out as nonchalantly as he could, "I overused my seiðr and miscalculated the amount of energy and time it would take to reach the next planet. Midway through the travel, I realized that we would not be able to make it to the next planet safely, so my seiðr sought out the nearest safe place to land and as soon as we could safely disembark the path, the seiðr stopped the travel and started to repair itself. Unfortunately for us, that was up in the air. Anyway, it wasn't too much of a distance to even make an impact on us, so that's good. Any other questions?"

By the Allfather! He really hated pointing out his mistakes for everyone to see.

"You should have told us on the previous planet. We would have taken a break and you could have rested." Fandral said with a frown.

Sif looked at Loki and for a second saw herself in his expression. She remembered that expression from her early days in the royal guard, when she was still proving herself to everyone that a maiden could fight just as well as a man could. Back then she had ignored the fact that she was physically not as strong as the men and pushed herself to her limit. More often than not, she ended up in the infirmary and it wasn't until Eir told her to respect her own boundaries and told her stories of the Valkyrior that Sif started to use her differences to her own advantage. She wondered whether Loki felt the same because he used seiðr. Perhaps he did and perhaps that was why Sif wanted to help him out. Had he always felt in such a manner? If he did, how did she miss it? She was his assigned guard. If anyone knows the most intimate details of a prince, it is their guard that follows them everywhere. How did she not see this? Maybe, being separated from Asgard for quite some time did clear her mind like 'Odin' had told her it would.

"Loki," said Sif, "I do not understand how you use your seiðr to transport us, but I imagine it something like you carrying us around in your seiðr and I'm assuming that is pretty difficult to do." At Loki's raised brow and mocking look, she continued, "Maybe I am not being clear. So, correct me if I am wrong…"

"Go ahead." Loki said with a smirk and leaned back in his chair.

Sif picked up an apple in her hand and moved it from her plate to Fandral's. "I am assuming this is how you are transporting us."

"Yes, that is how transportation usually works."

"So, going by that, the heavier your passengers, the more difficult it gets and the more energy you utilize." Hogun pointed out. "Which means, that carrying the six of us, including yourself obviously, must be quite tricky, not to mention tiring and all the while navigating through whatsoever is out there and finding new paths and keeping us hidden when we reach a new planet. My sister is a seiðkona. I know that the more you use within a short amount of time, the more energy you lose. That means you must be losing a lot of energy each time you take us somewhere."

And the various dimension pockets I keep and the illusions in place and the energy taken to keep everything just how I need it to be, Loki thought to himself. Aloud, he said, "What is your point?"

"The point, Loki, is that maybe you should tell us if you need to rest." Heimdall said. "You are doing a lot. If we can only help by stopping when you need to, then would it not be better if we knew it?"

"You could perhaps not make us invisible to everyone." Volstagg offered. "Would that not reduce the amount of energy being used?"

Oh, it would! Loki thought. "The planets we go to could be hostile."

"Come on, Loki, you know that we are more than capable of handling any threats." Fandral said confidently. "So, why keep up the illusion?"

Why was everyone ganging up on him? Did he miss something? Loki ran a hand through his hair and sighed. Might as well spell it out for them. They didn't seem to be capable of coming up with that possibility themselves. "Because of Thanos. He has networks everywhere. Ears and eyes all over the universe. I do not know how many or even where all or who they are – no one does, as far as I know. I am not taking the chance that they know of me, see me and report to Thanos. I am supposed to be dead. It is better that Thanos is not alerted to well, anything."

"Well, then you just need to trust us enough to tell us that you need to stop and take rest." Sif said and realized that their earlier conversation must have held some truth to it. Something in Loki's tone and eyes made her wary of this Thanos and if Loki was afraid enough to almost let it be known to them, then she could only come up with various scenarios involving Loki and Thanos and none looked good.

"This will not happen again." Loki gritted out. "I have been here before and I know the pathways from here to the nine realms. Now, if you all will excuse me, I am going to check on my wards on this place and then we can leave." Without waiting for a reply, Loki walked out of the room.

"It is not about you knowing the pathways or not." Sif said as she followed Loki into the living room and watched a window pane light up in the same green color as Loki's seiðr. "It is about you trusting us enough to inform us when you need to rest and regain your energy."

"Trust you?" Loki scoffed. "Why would I want to make such a mistake?"

"You made it once before, didn't you?" Sif argued, her temper rising once again. It was so very easy to get mad at Loki. He just had that quality. "And anyway, aren't we supposed to work together to get back the stones? We cannot do that unless we trust one another."

"No, _you_ cannot do that. I can. I have literally always been surrounded by people I do not trust and I have worked with them. I can do it again." Loki replied flippantly. "You should learn too."

"You know Loki, we are really trying, but you make it so hard to be even companionable with you." Sif growled.

Loki gave a derisive laugh and turned to face Sif, his cape fluttering behind him despite there being no draught in the room. "No, my dear Sif. You are trying to get something from me, other than basic transportation, protection and the way to Thor. I'm doing that on my own. But whatever you all want from me, I'm not giving it to you. You cannot use my own techniques on me to attain information."

"Well, we would not have to resort to this if you were just straightforward with us." Fandral commented as the others came into the room. They had been listening to the conversation and decided to step in before Sif could go into an all-out war with Loki. It was a possibility.

"About what?" Loki said in a frustrated manner. "For your information, I have not once lied to you – well, lied about anything important – to you on this entire trip. I told you I would take you across the universe to Thor. I'm doing that. I told you I will not harm you until we reach our destination and I'm really trying not to break that promise. So could you try and not instigate me?"

"But you have not told us about Thanos."

"Again with Thanos! I have told you anything that might be of importance to you. Thanos is powerful, now even more so with the infinity stones, he is ruthless, merciless and is twisted in his thinking. What else could you want to know?"

"Why don't you tell us how you ended up working with Thanos?" Volstagg asked.

"I don't see how that is of any importance to what we have to do and if you are worried about me going to work with Thanos again, let me assure you – that will not be happening." Loki forced a smile and gritted out, "Will that be all? If you don't mind, we should continue with our journey. It is still a long way to go and we would all want to reach there as fast as possible, wouldn't we?"

The door opened on its own and Loki stood next to it with a polite smile but his eyes were hard as he waited for each one of them to leave the house. As Sif passed by him, she said, "We will find out whatever it is you are attempting to hide, Loki."

"I would wish you luck but I don't really care." Loki hissed back and waited for Heimdall to pass him and followed him out and whispered, "I swear on Allfather, Heimdall, if you said anything to them, I will not hesitate to kill you and this time you will not escape with just a frostbite."

Heimdall met Loki's glare with his own unnerving gaze and said softly, "I believe you, but I also believe that they needed to know."

'Needed', that word jumped around Loki's mind. The last thought he had before he converted them all into pure energy to be transported, was that Heimdall had told them whatever he suspected was the truth. That damned gatekeeper better hope that Loki had calmed down enough to not kill him, by the time they reached the next planet to rest on.


	15. Chapter 15

**_CHAPTER 15_**

 _Location: Vanaheimr_

"Thor!" Idunn exclaimed and inclined her head in a bow as she walked towards her cousin and tried not to stare at his short hair or mismatched eye. She wondered how he was managing to hold up even after everything that he had gone through. He looked so very different and it was not just because of his new look, it was the way he held himself, the way he walked – it was like he had aged a hundred years since the last time she had seen him and that had been just about a decade ago, just before his interrupted coronation. Within a span of ten years, the entire family had broken completely and she could see the strain of it all on her cousin.

"Idunn, what's happening? I received Freyr's message that you have made contact with my people. Is there any news since then?" Thor asked as he attached his new axe to his weapons belt and followed Idunn into the palace. He nodded at a few of the guards as they walked by them. Even now he could see how much impact the snap had had on his cousins' home. The palace looked far too empty than usual and it made Thor's heart hammer in his chest as he wondered whether he had lost even more Asgardians due to the snap.

"Come this way." Idunn said as she turned away from the throne room. "We are all in the communications center, awaiting a message from your people. The first message that we had received informed us that the Asgardians are in Svartálfaheimr. There are 112 of them and they had stayed overnight on the home world. Then they managed to commandeer a semi working battleship from the home world and are now at a satellite station. There are two satellite stations in that realm – one near the void leading to Múspellsheimr and the other near the border of Niflheimr."

"And where are they?" Thor inquired.

"Unfortunately, at the station near the void." Idunn answered with a sigh. "They have limited fuel which would probably get used up by the time they reach the other station. They are also low on food supply and have barely enough to feed five mouths. They have been rationing the food and water but it is not going to last even halfway of their travel. Master Valthjof is currently charting the shortest route to safety and we would send it over as soon as it is done."

"Can I communicate with them?"

"Only through written messages."

"That will be enough."

The two entered the Communications Center where an entire area was reserved for communicating with the Asgardians. Everyone stood at attention as Thor entered the room and he dismissed them in favor of making his way to Master Valthjof. He remembered the older man from his previous visits to the planet. He and Loki had once gotten into a world of trouble with the older man when they challenged his ways. Since then, the two brothers ensured to not cross the teacher's path if they could avoid it. Now, Thor suppressed the grimace that automatically graced his face on seeing the elderly figure and asked how to work on the system.

"Umm… Brunn?" Kari yelled for the Valkyrie, who was roaming around the floor above him.

"What?"

"I think we have a message from King Thor." Kari grinned at the warrior as she jumped down from the railing above.

"Show me."

 _'Brunnhilde, this is Thor. How are you and everyone else doing? I have a lot of questions for you, but as of now just answer this – have we lost more than before? Also, do you have any seiðr-users with you?  
We will be sending a star chart and the shortest route to Niflheimr with the next message.'_

"Okay, okay." Brunn muttered and told Kari, "Reply with this – We did not lose anyone after leaving the Statesman and yes, we have some seiðr-users here. Things are getting a bit dicey so try to send help fast."

True to Thor's word, the next message contained star charts and the shortest possible route with an additional message saying that Thor would be helping them reach Vanaheimr along with the instructions for when they reached Niflheimr.

A yellow light flashed on the system in front of them and Sol asked, "What's that?"

"They are sending something across. Sol, check the teleporter." Kari ordered.

Walking over to the teleporter, Sol opened the latch and checked inside. On the floor was a black box of sorts and a brown satchel. She took both items to Brunnhilde.

"That's a portable navigation and communication system." Kari said as he inspected the box. "This way they can keep contact with us till we reach Niflheimr."

"Why did they not send a person instead of this?" Sol grumbled. "Or better yet, use the teleporter to teleport us out of here."

"I told you, they cannot do that. You can only teleport a person using one of the other satellites and we are in touch with the central station. Anyway, these teleporters are made to be used by a maximum of four people at a time and then it needs to be reset because it is only for the maintenance personnel. It would take literal days to take all of us out of here. It would be faster and easier to go to Niflheimr."

"Fine." Sol rolled her eyes and asked Brunn, "What's in the satchel?"

"Official letter by Thor under the Asgardian seal to allow us entry into Niflheimr without being harmed." Brunn tucked the letter into her armor's inner pocket. "And some packed foodstuffs. The instructions say that they need to be unpacked using seiðr. I remember these from the wars. The seiðr would multiply the item when you unpack it. But I think this is enough for only one meal."

"What's this?" Kari picked up a rectangular cream colored box from the satchel.

"Baby food." Brunn replied. "We usually used to carry all of this when we went on rescue missions or some such. Come on. Kari, send a final message relaying our gratitude and inform them that we are making our way to Niflheimr immediately."

Thor pushed his face into the soft pillow beneath him and pulled the blanket under his chin. His head felt heavy and the lull of sleep had almost pulled him in when he remembered that he needed to check up on his people. Groaning, he pushed himself up and rolled out of the bed before he could change his mind and catch up on some much needed sleep. After they had received word that the Asgardians were making their way to Niflheimr, his three cousins had ganged up on him and insisted that Thor get some rest. Freyja had even brought Eir into the whole thing and Eir had ordered Thor to sleep and given him a calming potion to help him out. Now, the potion was hurting his head. He remembered that one needed at least six hours sleep for the potion to effectively burn out of the system, otherwise it could cause some horrible headache and lethargy.

Pulling on his armor, Thor went to search for Eir. She had always had a counter-potion ready for whenever Loki had taken this particular potion because he simply refused to sleep for more than four hours at a stretch. Thor leaned against a wall and sighed as he rubbed his face. He really needed to stop thinking about Loki. Every small thing reminded him of his brother and it was getting harder to carry on. This was even worse than the last two times he had thought Loki dead. This time… he just could not stop thinking. He felt like he was missing a piece of himself and he would never get it back. The past few months, he had gotten used to Loki just being there by his side – just like old times. It was like none of the horrible years had happened, and then suddenly… it was just Thor again. Thor without Loki was… inconceivable.

"Oh, there you are." Freyja said as she spotted Thor leaning against a wall in the hallway. "I was coming to wake you and I come bearing gifts from Eir."

Thor smiled and gratefully took the lime flavored drink from Freyja. As soon as he drank it, he felt his headache reduce and by the time they reached the communication center, it was almost gone.

"Where are they now?" Thor asked in general.

"Border of Niflheimr, Your Majesty." Valthjof answered.

"And it took them only two and a half hours to reach there." Idunn said with a smile. "Dark Elves' technology is so … different."

"It is." Thor answered, thinking about the time he had tried flying one of those ships. Some of the statues he had destroyed that day had never been rebuilt again. "Anything from King Calder?"

"Not yet. He had said that he would contact us once he meets the Valkyrie." Freyr reminded Thor.

It was almost twenty minutes later that they had an incoming holographic message from King Calder of Niflheimr. Within minutes Thor had relayed his instructions for the Asgardians once again and thanked the king for his understanding and hospitality.

"Are you sure you know how to do this?" Idunn asked as she found herself standing alongside Thor and her siblings near the official Bifrost site behind the palace.

The plan was to get the Asgardian refugees to the official Bifrost site on Niflheimr and then Thor would transport them by summoning the Bifrost. At first, the plan was for Thor to go to Niflheimr personally and get the people in batches but Eir had interfered and informed how that method used to take its toll on Heimdall and how it was slightly easier to transport others from a fixed point. That was why the observatory had been made.

"I think so." Thor replied and clutched the axe in hands. He looked over to where Eir was standing in case he exhausted himself and she smiled encouragingly at him. He nodded and turned to focus on the Bifrost site. He had visited Niflheimr a couple of times for official purposes and knew the Bifrost area over there somewhat well enough. Relaxing himself to some extent, he let the energy flow through him and suddenly he could picture the Niflheimr Bifrost site. Pushing the weapon in front of him, he let out the energy and the rainbow bridge formed between Vanaheimr and Niflheimr.

Valkyrie grinned as the familiar rainbow bridge lit up the entire area where the Asgardians were standing. As a testing mechanism for the durability of the bridge, they first sent across the skiff. When the bridge didn't waver and they received an affirmative from King Freyr that the skiff had reached them, Valkyrie sent across a group of four – the only intact family in their group. King Calder nodded as he received another affirmative signal from Vanaheimr and Valkyrie first sent across the children, then the few elderly and then the women and lastly the warriors and men.

Thor barely resisted screaming out in pain as the energy flowing through him kept increasing. The more he transported, the more he felt like he was burning up. His knees were almost about to give away, but what kept him going was the cheer of people that he was bringing home – his people.

"Only twelve more." Freyja whispered to him and Thor gritted his teeth and nodded.

Brunnhilde sighed in relief as the last of the Sakaarian had disappeared in the glowing rainbow bridge. She looked over to Korg and Meik, who had insisted on going along with her, not wanting to leave her alone at the end. Thanking the Niflheimr royalty, the Valkyrie took a deep breath and stepped into the colorful column. The familiar rush of high speed transportation ran through her body and sooner than she knew, the ride was over and she was in Vanaheimr.

Thor panted in relief as he withdrew the energy once Freyja announced that everyone had returned safely. This had been just like letting the energy of a dying star hit him with full force – that hadn't been an enjoyable experience. He was aware that Eir ran up to him and checked over him but his other senses were still recovering.

"Are you alright?" Idunn asked as Eir fussed over Thor.

"Yes, yes. Eir, please, I am fine."

"You said the same thing when you were stabbed."

"I was fine then and I am fine now too." Thor replied with an eye roll and looked sheepish when Eir glared at him. "Can I go and meet the people? Come along. You would be needed."

Thor grinned as he walked towards the crowds of people. His last remaining people were safe and that was all that mattered. He quickly searched for Brunnhilde, who was looking at the hills in the distance. She whirled around just as he came up behind her.

"You Majesty!" she said jovially, just like she had done right before they had gone off to fight Hela. "You didn't die."

"I guess I didn't." Thor replied with a grin and tried to come up with ways of hugging her without ending up with a knife in his gut. He had been in that situation far too many times for his liking. Before he could come up with anything, Brunn chuckled and nodded and he hugged her briefly.

"Welcome home." Thor whispered to her and she nodded back at him.

"Everything alright with you all? Also, how did you end up in that dead realm?"

"Beats me, but I'll tell you everything later." Brunn replied with a shrug. "The people are okay, I guess. Just need food and rest and definitely a bath. I need alcohol. I haven't had a drink in ages! It's driving me crazy."

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Um… have you met Eir?" Thor asked, pointing at Eir, who was engaged in a conversation with Korg.

"Duh, she was the one who used to heal us all the time." Brunn replied and caught the healer's attention while Thor talked to Korg and a few of the citizens.

Idunn came up to Thor while he was talking with the three Einherjar and informed him that he should probably get everyone inside the palace.

"We have set up the feasting halls for a meal so everyone could eat and then they could rest. There are three inns just before the market area. You must be remembering them – we used to frequent their taverns a lot when we were younger. They have been emptied for the Asgardians. Your people can stay here for as long as needed. You need not worry about that." Idunn informed Thor as they walked into the palace with the people following them.

"I cannot thank you enough." Thor said with gratitude and looked at Freyr and Freyja, who had joined in on the conversation. "All of you. I do not know how I could ever repay this."

"Just introduce us to the Valkyrie." Freyja replied immediately as she followed the Valkyrie with her eyes.

"Of course, of course." Thor chuckled and called Brunn forward. "Brunn, meet my cousins, King Freyr and Princesses Freyja and Idunn. Cousins, this is Brunnhilde, the la- the Valkyrie." Thor sheepishly grinned at Brunn while she tried to put up a smile for the Vanir royals. She hated being reminded that she was the last one standing.

A few hours later, once everyone had been fed and bundled off to the inns and Eir had set some healers loose on those injured, Thor found himself in a private parlor that the royal family usually used for family gatherings. He had sat himself in his usual chair whenever he visited his cousins and his cousins had too taken up their usual places. Thor looked over to the empty chair beside him – that was Loki's usual spot, right next to the window, so he could stare out and ignore everyone whenever someone started to irritate him and also so that he could spy on others – that had been his favorite pastime. Now, it was empty. At first, Brunnhilde had been about to sit there but Thor had subtly insisted on some other place and she had just shrugged and moved on to the other lounge chair next to him.

"So, Thor, how's the big guy?" Brunn asked as she nursed her hundredth glass of mead. Well, Thor lost count after thirty.

"No longer big. He is back to being Banner. Actually, Hulk hasn't come out ever since the Statesman."

"You're kidding. No way. I like the big guy. Well, I like the small guy too, but…"

"You wanna come along?"

"Where?"

"Midgard."

"For what?"

"To see Banner?"

Thor looked at her expectantly while his cousins watched in amusement. Brunn sighed and asked, "You are leaving?"

"In four hours' time, it would be daylight on Midgard. I would leave then." Thor answered solemnly.

"Why?" Brunn questioned and inhaled the contents of her glass in one go. "You have got your people back just now. Are we still going to settle on Midgard?"

"That actually has not come up yet. The people there are very much confused and grieving for all that they just lost…"

"So did we!" Brunnhilde defended. "Our people – your people, just lost their entire planet. They are confused too. You can't just leave us here."

"I'm not leaving you here." Thor replied, sitting up straight. "But I am also part of this team of heroes on Midgard – the Avengers. They are – we are…"

"Avengers?" Brunn asked in amusement. "Now I understand why Banner and Loki always laughed at the stupid name you gave us."

Thor said sheepishly, "Well, I'm not good at coming up with names."

"That's true." Freyr agreed.

"I feel a story coming up."

"There's no story. Nothing's coming up." Thor said hastily as everyone else exchanged amused glances and Freyja mouthed to Brunn that she would tell her later. "I was telling you about the Avengers. You see, we are responsible for protecting Midgard from threats that the normal mortal cannot perceive and Thanos definitely qualifies. The team has decided that we are going to go after him and at least avenge the ones we all lost."

"What's the deal with this Thanos anyway?" Brunn asked, pouring herself another glass of mead. "You know, I had heard of him back on Sakaar. There were many people who were running away from this guy and most of them did not seem like they would get involved with anything bad."

"You know, I could tell you everything that I know about him, which I admit is not all that much. But, back on Midgard, there are two people who have gone up against him multiple times. One of them is his own daughter – adopted daughter. Or preferably, stolen."

"Is he anything like Hela?"

"Far more powerful and so much worse. Hela sought to bring everything under her rule and he planned to destroy half of the universe, which he did." Thor answered gravely and told all that he knew of Thanos to Brunn and his cousins.

"So," Brunnhilde drawled, breaking the silence that had enveloped them, "Thanos is crazy and powerful and has six stones that can change the laws of the universe?"

"Yes."

"And you and a bunch of mortals wish to go up against him?"

"Yes."

"Are you out of your mind?" Idunn asked abruptly. "How can you hope to survive something like that?"

"We all survived it once. We can do it again. All we need is a good plan." Thor replied confidently.

"Is it really necessary?" the Valkyrie asked. "I mean no offence, but the people who are gone are gone and nothing you do can bring them back. _I know that!_ Then what's the point?"

"Revenge." Thor answered and looked squarely at her. "You understand that better than anyone else."

"Yeah, but you also have people to take care of and if something happens to you, there is no one who can take over. How are the people supposed to continue without you? You are their king and their leader. You are responsible for them and I think you should focus on them, because if something happened to you, what will happen to Asgard?"

Thor sighed and said, "Asgard will survive and carry on and nothing is going to happen to me anyway. We are going to go, kill Thanos and eliminate a huge threat to our way of life."

"Think about it." Brunn said softly while the Vanir wisely didn't meddle in the conversation.

Thor sighed and asked, "Do you want to come? To Midgard, with me? To meet Banner at least. He was asking about you and if we are going to end up settling on Midgard, perhaps you could at least look at the planet beforehand."

"And what about our people?" Brunnhilde asked.

Freyr interjected, "We meant when we said that the Asgardians could live here for as long as required. We already have a few Asgardians living here and we definitely have the space and resources." He added bitterly, thinking about all the people he had lost.

"Thank you, cousin." Thor said genuinely and looked at Brunnhilde.

"Fine. One visit to that realm. Let's see what all the fuss is about." Brunn agreed.

"Well, in that case, you both should probably get some rest."

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Avengers Facility, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

May looked up from her plate as a bright light lit up the garden that they could see from the window. The chatter around the table stopped abruptly and Bruce muttered, "Thor's back."

"I'll set an extra plate then. He loves waffles." Natasha sighed and went to set another place for their resident god. All of them were indulging in a companionable breakfast and had somehow managed to fit everyone in the kitchen. As Friday announced that Thor had returned with an unknown person, Happy dragged a chair from the adjoining common room and wordlessly went to sit next to May and everyone continued with what they were doing.

"Does anyone live here?" Brunn whispered to Thor.

"Yeah, but it's early, so they all are probably enjoying breakfast." Thor replied and looked excitedly at Brunnhilde. He was looking forward to having her meet his friends and then showing her around the place. Seeing her look around in confusion at the absence of people, he explained, "This place is owned by my friend Tony Stark. He is also a warrior called Iron Man and part of the Avengers. Anyway, this place has an A.I. called Friday who sees and hears everything. That is probably why no one has come to meet us yet – Friday would have informed them of our arrival and there is no reason for them to come to see me since I already live here whenever I come to Midgard and they are not under attack. Midgard is far less formal in all these matters than what we are used to."

Brunn nodded and asked, "A.I.? As in the type we can find on Xandar?"

"I have never been to Xandar but yes, it is something like the A.I. they have." Thor looked at the ceiling, even though Tony had time and again told not to do that – that Friday wasn't actually in the ceiling, it was only her speakers, but it was a habit that all of them had developed. "Friday, where is everyone?"

"In the kitchen, Thor. You and your guest can join them for breakfast. There are waffles."

"That's Friday, I suppose." The Valkyrie looked around her and asked, "No body?"

"I have no physical body." Friday replied. "May I know your name?"

"Brunnhilde."

"She is a Valkyrie." Thor said helpfully.

"Noted." Came the response and Friday stored that information away and ran a search on what a Valkyrie was.

"Kitchen is this way." Thor said and looked at his friend. "You'll like waffles, I think."

Bruce looked up expectantly as Thor and Brunnhilde entered the kitchen and got up noisily from his place on the island. He grinned at Brunn and enveloped her in a hug. "So glad you are alive."

"Same thing, little guy. What's up with the big guy?"

"Who knows?" Bruce replied sulkily. "He is being uncooperative."

"He'll come around." Brunn said and nodded at the others when introductions were made. She looked curiously at the children sitting on the dining table and was glad that there were no babies here – she had had enough of babies for quite some time.

"What is a Valcry?" Lila asked Thor.

"Valkyrie." Thor corrected. "They are an elite force of female warriors."

Lila nodded and said to Brunn, "I like your hair."

"And your dress." Jo added.

"This is actually my uniform, but thank you." Brunn replied politely.

"So, they are like the Dora Milaje?" Steve asked and explained, "The all women troops in Wakanda."

"Something like that." Thor answered, digging into his waffle with gusto while Brunn inspected hers and smiled at Pepper as she told her to put some of the available syrups on it. Thor was right. She did like it.

"So what happened with you guys? Where's Korg?" Bruce asked.

"Korg's on Vanaheimr with the others." Brunn replied. "We all went on an adventure that would have ended in starving to death had we not had a communications student with us to send a distress call."

"Yes, Brunn, how did you end up on Svartálfaheimr?" Thor asked.

"Swa what?" Rocket asked, his eyes bulging out.

"Svartálfaheimr." Thor said slowly. "It is a dead realm."

"Not to be confused with the realm of the dead." Bruce interrupted and Thor smiled and nodded. Looking at the others, the scientist explained, "Someone taught me about the different realms when we were travelling."

"So, yes, it is a dead realm." Thor continued. "It used to be inhabited by the dark elves – they are the ones who were behind the attacks in London that one time." Everyone acknowledged and he said, "Anyway, they all are dead now, so the realm is barren. But, what I don't understand is how the people ended up there."

"Through a portal apparently." Brunn answered and gulped the fruit juice that Thor had served her. "By the time we got close to the jump point, the Statesman exploded and we were hit by the shockwaves of it, which knocked many people out, including me. But, some of the children who were still conscious, said that they saw a portal pulling us in and then we crashed on Svartálfaheimr." The Valkyrie drank more of the juice as she saw everyone listening intently to her. "Eda, that's a seiðkona, she said that it could be a gravitational portal because it pulled us away from the jump point. And that's not even the mind blowing part."

"There is more?" Thor asked with a raised brow.

"The fun part is that none of the seiðr-users in our group are powerful enough for that, so, someone else made the portal for us."

"Who?" Bruce asked. "And why would they take you to a dead realm?"

"Dunno." Brunn shrugged. "Anyway, according to Korg and Miek, we would have never made it to the jump point because…"

"It got destroyed because of the shockwave." Thor completed and sighed in relief thinking about how narrowly his people escaped death.

"That was close." Bruce sighed and everyone nodded.

After breakfast, as everyone dispersed, Thor offered to show Brunnhilde around the place. They were in the outdoor training area when Brunn noticed the silver chain around Thor's neck as it glinted in the sunlight.

"What's this?"

Thor pulled the accessory out of his shirt and showed the glass pendent to her. She recognized the braid immediately and her hand automatically went to the back of her hair where she once had braided her lover's hair with hers. After running away to Sakaar, she had removed it and burnt it along with everything else that reminded her of Asgard, barring her blade.

"Who?" she asked softly and wondered whether Thor had a lover who had died in the attacks. She had never heard him mention anything of that sort at all during the months on the spaceship.

"Loki." Thor said shortly and tucked the pendent back, hidden from all and close to his heart.

She placed her hand on his and said sincerely, "I am sorry." Thor nodded and she asked, "What happened after I left?"

"Thanos' people killed everyone on board. Thanos killed my brother and Heimdall." Thor sniffed and looked fiercely at her. "That's why I want to take revenge. I would love nothing else but to take care of the people and to get us all settled somewhere peacefully, but… this is my brother we are talking about."

"Thanos killed half the universe." Brunn nodded as they walked back into the huge house.

"No, Brunnhilde." Thor stopped walking and fiddled with the automatic lock behind him. He turned to face the warrior and said, "Thanos ran a sword through Heimdall. Thanos strangled Loki and I watched helplessly from the sidelines. Thanos has to die."

"You never told us that."

Thor looked up just as Brunn turned around and saw Tony standing on the top of the three steps that led to the main area of the house. The inventor sighed and apologized, "Sorry, didn't mean to overhear that. Any chance either of you wanna sit in on the 'how to kill the giant purple grape' meeting? We'll be in the living room." With that he turned around and walked out of their sight.

"Is he always like this?" Brunn asked.

"Afraid so." Thor replied and gestured her to come with him.

"You have interesting friends." She said as she followed Thor. "And I get why you want to take revenge, I do, but you also have people to take care of. I hope you think through this thoroughly."

"I…" Thor stopped just outside the living room. He could hear a bit of chatter from within the room. "I promise to think this through."

"… stupid plan and you'll be dead before you know it." Rocket was saying as Thor and Brunn sat down.

"You got a better plan?" Scott asked. "That does not involve blasting everything in sight."

"Well, that's boring."

"They are criminals. Just buy information." Clint suggested.

"We won't be paying anybody." Nebula interrupted.

"Yes, because we don't have that kind of money." Rocket added. "And I'm not giving up my loot."

"No, we will not pay anyone because we kill them after they give us the information." Nebula deadpanned.

"Why?" Steve asked. "If they give us what we want then why should we kill them?"

"Because word will somehow get back to Thanos that there are people looking for him. It always does. That is also why only those who do not care about collateral damage will come along. You for instance." Nebula pointed to Natasha.

"Thanks, I guess?" Natasha mumbled.

"What's going on?" Brunnhilde asked in general.

"Right, you weren't here when we discussed this." Bruce answered. "Well, we are trying to get information on where Thanos might be now and they," he looked at Rocket and Nebula, "suggested that we go to some planet called Contraxia?"

"The pleasure planet?" Brunn asked.

"Yeah, it's a hot spot for Ravager clans and they always know stuff." Rocket said.

"And now you all are coming up with ways to go about it." Brunn concluded.

"Yes." Nebula said. "We cannot ask everyone about Thanos. It will be too suspicious and he will definitely hear about it. Nobody likes to talk about him if they can avoid it. The only thing Ravagers care about more than money is their own life and talking about Thanos gets people killed."

"So getting them to talk will be tricky then." Brunn said. "Okay, I'm in."

"What?" Thor looked at her. "Just some time back you were against me doing this and now you want to do it?"

Brunnhilde shrugged and said, "It's been ages since I went undercover. This is the closest I'm gonna get, so why not. And anyway, you are not the only one who wants revenge okay? Heimdall was like a mix of older brother and father figure to me and Lackey was the annoying person I never wanted to actually meet but he sort of grew on me like a fungus. You helped me with my revenge and this is me returning the favor. Plus, no one deserves to watch someone they love die and Thanos has to pay for that."

"He will." Tony muttered grimly and everyone agreed silently.

"Who's lackey?" Scott asked.

"Loki." Brunn answered. "Heard of him?"

"Who hasn't?"

"I was told he attacked you guys. I mean, the realm."

"He did. We don't like to talk about it." Clint replied gruffly.

Brunn shrugged and muttered, "Still can't believe he thought it was a good idea to conquer a realm. If he had killed everyone in sight then he would have been just like Hela. No offence, Thor."

Thor nodded, not knowing how to feel about his elder sister and younger brother being almost the same, even though they shared no blood. He wondered if he could have become like that but shook his head. There was no way he would have become that screwed up that he would kill everything in sight. Then again, there was the whole Jotunheimr thing because of which he had gotten banished. He sighed in annoyance. It was so much better when it had been just him and Loki and he didn't have any other blood relative to compare his actions to. Then, any differences between him and Loki could be put down to their different species, but with Hela in the picture, it was hard to not think of the dark past that his father had hidden from him. Had Loki always been able to tell that Odin had been hiding such a huge thing from them? Was that why he had despised their father?

"Loki did kill people." Bruce pointed out. "What was it? About eighty people in two days?"

"Yes." Natasha said. "And that was before the main fight even started."

Brunn whistled. "So, he was like Hela then."

"No, he was not." Thor gritted out. "I will not stand for anyone slandering my brother's name. You," he pointed to Nebula, "Daughter of Thanos, you said that my brother was forced to attack Midgard. Tell it all to us once again."

"Forced?" Brunn asked in confusion.

"Thor, there is no definitive proof of that." Steve said in a calming manner and looked at his other teammates. There was no love for Loki, but if he had been coerced to do things that he didn't mean to do, then it would put a whole new perspective on things and they would have to classify Loki as a victim even though none of them wanted to do that.

"You do not know my brother like I do. None of you knew the real him. Had you known him, you could not accuse him of such things. He is – was unstable in the recent years but that was not the real him." Thor almost pleaded them to understand. He could not just erase the things that Loki had done but he could remember him as the sweet younger brother rather than the mad man he had turned into for some time. "Banner, please, you met the real him. You have stayed alongside him during the months on the Statesman. Surely you understand."

As everyone turned to look at the scientist, Bruce took a deep breath and spoke to Thor, "Yeah, the Loki I met was far better than the Loki who attacked us, but Thor, he more or less lacked sympathy. He didn't even once say that he felt sorry for attacking us. Listen, I get what you are saying. You don't want to think of your brother as some villain but he was a villain, Thor and without real proof we cannot just ignore what happened."

Brunn reached over and squeezed Thor's wrist as the god looked at Bruce in what could only be called betrayal. She tried to match the Loki she met with the Loki they were talking about and she could see Thor's point, if only a bit. That Loki had been downright annoying and more often than not, she wished to throw him out of the ship, but he had never actively harmed anyone and mostly had just annoyed Thor and sometimes her. But the Loki that Bruce had told her about and the one the mortals despised was someone who seemed to be more like Hela. The Loki she knew may have been vindictive in his words and sometimes actions, but he was nothing like Hela. If anything, he had seemed to be disgusted by Hela and seemed genuinely interested in helping the people, something that Hela would have never done.

She focused on something that Thor had said and asked, "What did you mean by Lackey being forced?"

"He was being influenced by the mind stone. It increases any negative feelings that a person has and if you know how to use it properly, then it can make people puppets for your order." Nebula said, biting into a fruit that Rocket had given her and had assured her that it was ripe.

"Wait, what?" Clint asked. He knew how the mind stone messed up his brain. Was Loki also under its influence during the attack? It could not be!

"Did you tell us that before?" Tony asked, then asked in general, "Did she tell us that before?"

"No, she did not." Natasha said with a frown. "You said he was manipulated by someone, not that he was being mind-controlled by the mind stone."

"Can you us tell everything that you know?" Brunnhilde asked as she saw Thor pale at the mention of the mind stone being used on Loki.

Nebula shrugged and said, "I don't know much. My sister knew more because she was there all the time but I was on another mission. All I know is that The Other brought an almost dead Loki to Thanos and he figured out that Loki had some sort of never seen before power. Because of that, Loki was put into captivity and when he was conscious enough, they asked him to work for Thanos. Apparently, he refused or maybe that was only an excuse to torture him. It would have happened even if he had agreed."

"Why?" Tony asked. "If he agreed to do as they wished, then why torture him?" He thought about his own time in captivity and how all torture had stopped the minute he agreed to make 'Jericho' for them. Rhodey caught Tony's look and nudged his friend. He didn't want Tony thinking about those days. He had almost somewhat recovered from that and Rhodey didn't want him spiraling back into that darkness.

"To scare him into not trying to back out of it in the last minute." Nebula answered.

"They would condition pain into his psyche and every time he would think about stepping out of the line, his subconscious mind would not allow him to do that in fear of more pain." Natasha explained clinically. "Many torturers use this on their people. You scare someone so much that they can think of nothing but following orders."

"Yes." Nebula agreed and continued, "So, they tried to get him to do simple things and when that didn't work after sometime, they called us, the children of Thanos, to take over. From then on, Ebony Maw was in charge of twisting his memories and any mental manipulation and Gamora and I were in charge of physical torture. That was the only time I spent with him and his training too."

"Training?" Brunn asked and wondered why Loki would need training. Being a prince, he would have already been trained to the maximum, even more than what any other warrior would have been trained.

"My brother needs no training." Thor said in an offended tone.

Nebula raised an eyebrow and said, "Could have fooled us. When Thanos asked me to train him, Loki only had the basic knowledge of how to fight. I taught him the rest. A few others helped too, but it was mainly me. He caught on pretty fast though."

Thor scrunched up his face in confusion and said in a proud tone, "Loki could fight using almost any weapon, even if he preferred knives to most of them. He is one of the youngest to ever complete the entire warrior training, barring me of course. I finished it two decades before Loki did, but still, he is one of the best warriors we have."

"Had." Brunn corrected silently and Thor took a shaky breath.

"Had." Thor repeated. "My point is that Loki could never require any sort of training, despite whatever fighting technique you may use."

"He was good at it, I guess." Brunn said grudgingly. "And he doesn't hesitate to fight dirty."

"Are you sure?" Nebula asked. "He said that he was a prince and he had people protecting him all the time…"

"We are a warrior race." Brunn said with a slight smirk. "Every Asgardian has to undergo a century of basic training when they reach their fifth century and every member of the royal family is as good if not better than the best of our soldiers. I think Loki played you."

"To find out what the enemy knows and to get the enemy to underestimate you." Natasha knew that technique pretty well. She used it often and it always worked in her favor. Despite her reputation, people still assumed that she was weak because she was a woman and she always used that to her advantage.

" _That_ sounds like Loki." Thor said with a small smile.

"Are you saying that I wasted half a year teaching him what he already knew?" Nebula asked in annoyance. "Whatever, even he would need training to be able to kill a child in cold blood."

"What?" almost everyone yelled at her.

"I already told you that whenever Thanos went to a planet, he killed half of it. Do you think he spared the children? We had to kill anyone in our way, regardless of their age or gender or species."

"And what about Loki?" Thor asked hesitantly. He really hoped his brother had been able to draw a line when it came to such a horrible thing. "Did he…"

"I don't know what he would have done." Nebula answered. "We hadn't reached that point in his training when the Terrans started to use the Tesseract and Thanos decided that it could no longer stay with Terra. So, I was sent on another mission and he taught Loki how to use the mind gem to control people and sent Loki to Terra. What he didn't tell Loki was that he had opened a bit of the mind gem to keep control over Loki. I myself found it out later. And I already told you that Loki asked for Terra to be his in exchange for getting the Tesseract. Beyond that, I don't know anything other than that Loki lost to you all somehow and we lost both the mind and the space stone along with half of the Chitauri army. Thanos blamed Loki for changing the terms in the last minute for that failure. Had the original plan been kept, he would have gotten the space stone too and no place in the universe would be out of his reach." Nebula paused and stared at the carpet.

"Now that I think about it, it cost us a lot of time and then some months later Gamora left and hindered with the power stone."

"We helped, you know!" Rocket interrupted indignantly.

"It sounds… I don't know." Shuri sighed, speaking for the first time. "Was he or was he not under influence? Did he actually mean to attack Earth? What were his motives? Why did he change the terms?"

"Well, there's only one person who has the answers to all that and he is dead, so…" Brunn snuck a look at Thor's expression and corrected, "I mean, we lost Loki and he had all the answers…"'

Thor cleared his throat and said with an air of finality, "Since we can no longer get any answers to these questions and did not ask these questions when we had the opportunity and time, I suggest that we give my brother the benefit of doubt. Please!"

"We can do that." Bruce said, wanting to pacify the agitated god.

"We can also not talk of Loki anymore." Clint gritted out. "It's not like it is of any use to us anyway. Let us just focus on Thanos for now."

"That is acceptable." Thor grunted.

"So, we need to decide who all get to visit a new planet!" Tony said excitedly.

"Me, Rocket, Natasha, Thor and Valkyrie." Nebula said without hesitation.

"Brunnhilde. Brunn for short." Brunn corrected and Nebula nodded at her.

"Whoa!" Tony exclaimed. "I want to go."

"Do you have any issue with killing people after they give us information or just killing them in general?" Rocket questioned.

"Even if they haven't done anything?"

"Yes."

Tony and Steve looked at each other. There was no way either of them would allow such a thing and Steve voiced his opinion.

"That is not how the Ravagers work. If you are not a child, they will kill you for sure and you are Terrans. You aren't exactly the most durable life form out there. It would be very easy to kill you." Nebula said.

"It is immoral to kill people when they haven't done anything wrong and then too, it should be a last resort." Steve protested and almost everyone agreed.

"Come on!" Rocket groaned. "You wanna fight and hope to win, you gotta fight dirty. Sometimes people die, especially in a war and it is war against Thanos, isn't it?"

"You cannot come along with that attitude." Nebula said to Steve. "I cannot risk word leaking out at all, so tell me now if anyone has a problem."

"Thor, buddy, come on? No qualms? Nothing?" Tony asked.

"Although I have left those ways behind me, I can appreciate the reasoning behind Nebula's words." He turned to Nebula and said, "As long as there is minimum killing involved."

"Only when required." Nebula deadpanned and got up. She turned to face Rocket and asked, "The satellite enhancer will allow us to access the Inter-Galactic Database?"

"It should."

"Then I would like to read up on the latest information on Contraxia. I have been out of loop for far too long."

"Yeah, I wanna check if Hoxun is still alive. He owes me a hundred thousand units. He lost two bets. Idiot!"

As Rocket and Nebula started to walk out of the room, Tony spoke up, "Count me in. For the 'going to Contraxia' bit."

Nebula stared at him and muttered, "Fine, whatever."

Tony got up to follow the two out, when Steve caught on to his shirt sleeve and gave him a disappointed look. "What do you think you are doing?"

"Going with those two to read up on Contraxia?" Tony said nonchalantly.

"I mean about going to Contraxia. You are going to help them kill people?"

Tony sighed and gently pushed Steve's hand away. "I'm going to make sure that they don't end up killing unnecessarily. The two of them seem pretty trigger happy. Listen, Steve, we can either sit here and judge them for doing something or we can go and actually try to do something about it. I'm doing the latter. You can decide for yourself."

Steve stared after Tony as the inventor walked out in search of the two aliens and pursed his lips.

"You are coming along, right?" Natasha asked with a smirk, already knowing the answer.

"Looks like it."


	16. Chapter 16

**(A/N - Hey guys! So, this chapter was fun to write because Thor and Loki finally meet! :D Yay! So, I wanted to write more in this chapter, but it was already long enough so more of Thor and Loki's bromance will come in the next chapter :)**

 **Enjoy and let me know how you guys like this.)**

 ** _CHAPTER 16_**

 _Location: Contraxia_

Loki kicked a bit of snow in front of him in annoyance. He should have taken the longer route when he had the chance and they would not be stuck on this awful planet. Well, the planet was actually quite a nice one and on previous visits, Loki had enjoyed the various 'entertainments' it provided but ever since he had learnt of his actual heritage, he hated to go near anyplace that was remotely cold and this planet resembled the climate of Jotunheimr quite a bit. The temperature was far below freezing and the wind was chilly and almost biting at his face. All that reminded him of Jotunheimr, but the planet was not as cold as his birth planet and if he concentrated enough on that point, he could differentiate the two.

Over the years, he had been conflicted about his heritage. At the very beginning he tried to deny his true self, tried to destroy Jotunheimr because if there were no other jotnar left then he would have no one to compare himself to. He could pretend he was an anomaly and not a monster and carry on in his life, obviously, not on Asgard. No, he had plans to leave Asgard, run away for one last time and never return, once he was done killing every last jotun left. Obviously, that didn't work out so well for him and so he had decided to do away with himself. No one could compare him to those monsters if there was no him. And that too didn't work out so well for him.

So, he turned to his family's favorite emotion: anger. For some time, it did help him out and made him feel better about himself. His plan to kill himself didn't work and in the burning rage behind all the failure and his true heritage, he decided to hurt the one person he thought deserved the hurt – Thor. Thor had never known pain like Loki had – the pain of rejection, the pain of humiliation, the pain of being the odd one out, being the monster. And Loki had had enough. He wanted Thor to feel at least a degree of what he had felt for so long. Then when he met Thanos and realized that he needed to go to Midgard, the one goal in his head was to hurt Thor. He wasn't exactly interested in letting Thanos get the Tesseract but at the same time if he could make Thor feel the pain he had always felt, well then, it would give him some satisfaction. But maybe he shouldn't have depended on his rage so much. Rage was more of Thor's area of expertise. His brother had killed monsters and men alike in a fit of rage, but Loki always preferred the quiet anger to burning rage, because rage could burn out, but quiet anger always dragged out and created more destruction and chaos than burning rage ever could. Which, in hindsight, was probably why people always hated him so much and preferred Thor to him.

In their childhood, whenever Thor had gotten angry, everyone knew to maintain their distance and depending on the reason of his anger, within a few hours or days, Thor would be back to his normal cheery self. But whenever Loki had gotten angry, he always hid it under a fake smile and diplomatic politeness. He never forgot and never forgave, considering them to be weaknesses. Like a predator, he would wait till the moment people had forgotten about it and then attacked. In all that time, he waited and watched and plotted. It occupied him till his anger subsided to a more manageable burn. That had made everyone tiptoe around him all the time and now that Loki thought of it, perhaps, the major reason for the wrong perception of him, was he himself. That made Loki angry. But he couldn't really be angry at himself, now could he? So, again he directed the anger at those near him and cursed them for not being able to see under his act. Thor and Frigga had been the only ones who could see Loki for who he was. Odin had either not cared or was too busy to give any time to his other child. Frigga had always comforted him and Thor had always distracted him, usually with hunts. So, it had irked Loki when Thor had been unable to see the real Loki on Midgard. Maybe, he saw beyond the madness for a few moments, but unlike before, he didn't keep at it, didn't keep annoying Loki till the younger brother had no option but to tell Thor the real truth. Thor didn't do anything and Loki made up his mind that Thor would never be let in on any of Loki's secrets ever again.

Not a great plan, Loki thought as he dug his foot under the snow and watched the snow fill in on top of his boot. The resulting cold soothed him to a degree and he let it, before remembering why the cold helped him so. Loki shook the snow off his boot and dragged his foot through the white, fluffy snow and watched in fascination as more snow kept filling in the trails that he made. Small things like that had always made him happy. He wanted to dig his fingers in the snow but didn't want to look like a child in front of his resting companions.

So, he continued to walk around, kicking snow when he was sure no one could see him and continued to think about his more recent years. They had been somewhat peaceful, but lonely at the same time. He had no family near him, his mother was gone, his father had fallen into his sleep once again and his brother preferred Midgard and Loki had jumped on the opportunity of Thor staying away from Asgard. He had still been angry with Thor at that time and loved the fact that he could do whatever he wanted with no one to keep a check on him. It was like that one and only time he had been left alone in the palace, obviously with the hundred servants and the guards and the council, but he had still been alone. Thor had gone to Niflheimr for some military training that Loki could care less about and Odin and Frigga were on Vanaheimr, visiting Frigga's family. The only reason Loki had been left alone was because he had his studies and training going on and was at a crucial level where they could not afford to have him miss even a single day. So, he had joyfully stayed back, away from anyone who had the slightest control over him. It had been for only two weeks but he had used his newfound freedom to the fullest.

The first few months of his rule as 'Odin' had been like that. He could do as he pleased and no one had the authority to stop him. The only ones who could recognize him, had been sent away – Sif to Midgard and then Nix, Eir to Vanaheimr and Heimdall had been busy hiding in the forests.

Loki had had his fun and then he started to feel the monotony set in. He hated monotony and it only served to remind him why he had despised the throne. Consequently, Loki started to spend more time with Odin in his chambers, at first telling Odin about how everything was going like he used to when he was a mere child and then later, stealing a little energy from Odin's regenerative shield to heal his own mind and body. That had worked till Odin had woken up one day only to scold Loki for deceiving them all, but by then Loki was way too deep in his plans of hiding from Thanos and thwarting the mad titan. In his panic, Loki had gone defensive and as a result, Odin had been wiped clean of his memory. Loki knew that if Odin stayed on Asgard, he would regain his strengths so much faster. That meant that Odin needed to go and stay with the other son. That was why Loki had chosen New York as the place that Odin would stay. It was close enough to Thor that Odin would have a connection and yet discreet enough that Thor would never discover Odin, not unless Odin regained his strength and sought Thor out.

By the time Thor had returned to Asgard, Loki had gotten way too comfortable. He no longer had the responsibility of taking care of Odin and had let himself relax. Admittedly, it wasn't one of his best moments when Thor had found him lounging and eating grapes while watching a play that he had commissioned for himself. Well, in his defense, he had wanted to see everyone's reaction to the fact that he was a jotun. Then it had gotten away from him when the people actually seemed to like the play. Maybe, he shouldn't have let that happen. The golden statue of his was just a drunken request, in order to see if anyone would call him out on his actions, but no one did and it did end up looking good, so that was one thing Loki was proud of. Shame that he had to destroy Asgard. That statue had been really nice.

The lean prince sat down on a rock with a sigh. Out of its own accord, his hand reached to play with the snow and he stared at the white, cold substance in his hands. It was just cold enough to affect a normal Asgardian but Loki could always feel the inherent chillness of anything around him. It had been so since his childhood and now he knew the reason behind his uniqueness.

Jotun.

Loki took a deep breath and let the snow fall from the spaces between his fingers. For a moment, Loki considered letting his hands turn blue, but even imagining it made him shudder in disgust. He thought back to the moments before his latest death, when he had proclaimed his relation to Thor and his heritage in one breath. He had been serious about that. After years of struggling, he had decided to give in and try to accept that he was different and that was alright. The fact that no one on the Statesman had treated him differently even when they all knew of his secret, had definitely helped him reach that conclusion. But saying it was one thing and accepting it was another, and he was still struggling with actually accepting it. Most probably, he would be struggling with it for years to come, that is, if he survived this suicidal quest that he was currently on.

He looked up as he heard Volstagg cough in the distance. His five companions had been huddled near a rock formation ever since they came on this planet. It was a few yards behind that formation that they had appeared out of thin air. Back then, the winds had been pretty strong and the five of them had taken shelter against the giant rock. Loki knew that if he stayed near them, he would definitely hurt Heimdall. He hadn't forgotten what had happened on Wyvernedge. He knew the gatekeeper had told the others whatever he considered to be the truth. It was quite obvious from the looks the others kept throwing his way. Loki took perverse pleasure in the fact that all five of them were insufficiently dressed for this climate and he offered no respite to them. Let them feel the cold.

His cold hair slapped against his face and Loki tucked the strands behind his ear. The howling of the wind was slowly but surely receding. Whatever storm they had gotten caught in, must be dissipating. Soon enough his companions would seek him out. Best not to give them the upper hand. Loki hummed a song that Frigga used to sing to Thor and him when they were younger and tried to control his anger at Heimdall. When he felt slightly under control on thinking of his escorts, he got up and stalked towards them.

Sif stood up as Loki neared them and said, "We should probably get going."

"We walk." Loki stated simply and without looking at them, started to walk to their right.

"Why are we walking?" Volstagg huffed, blowing air into his hands to keep them warm.

Loki sighed and debated internally whether he should answer anything but decided to answer them in the end. There were chances of fewer questions being asked that way. "There is only one pathway in this area and it goes right through the planet. It comes out on the other side of the planet, just outside the 'civilization' on this planet."

"We have to walk an entire planet?" Fandral whined. "Just use a portal!"

Loki glared at Fandral and bit out, "I just told you, the pathway goes through the planet. Using portals would create a disturbance in the inherent energies of this place. It is better to walk and the planet is not too big, it would not take us all that long. Perhaps just a day to reach the nearest town. Once we reach civilization, I can use portals." Before Sif could ask the next question, Loki held his hand up and said, "When we are near other life forms, the energies would thin out in those areas, making it safe to use seiðr. Any other questions?"

"Where are we?" Hogun asked.

"Contraxia." Loki replied and kept on walking.

"Is it always this cold? Or is it like Midgard – cold in only a few places?"

"It is an icy planet. The whole planet is covered in snow and ice, but it is warmer in populated areas. Now keep walking if you want to reach those areas faster."

Sif jogged up to Loki and asked, "Do you have any furs to keep us warm? I know you carry a lot of things in your dimension pockets."

"I told you I cannot use seiðr here without disturbing the energies in the area." Loki snapped. That wasn't entirely true. Loki knew how to use the surrounding energies to his purpose without disturbing anything. But that was a long and tedious process and he wasn't in a charitable mood. He would do that if someone was about to freeze to death.

After an hour or so, Loki took pity on Sif because of her chattering teeth and the bluish hue to her face and used the planet's inherent energy to create a sort of shield around them, except for himself. He liked the cold and it helped him think clearly. The shield ensured that they weren't hit by the chilly wind and it was the least he could do in a short amount of time. If he was right, they would reach the nearest town in twenty hours and for an Asgardian, it wasn't that much of a long time to walk.

X-X-X-X-X

 _Location: Retreat_

Tony whistled as his eyes adjusted to the alien lighting of the alien planet that he was currently standing on. Next to him, Steve looked around in wonderment and Natasha muttered something in Russian. Behind him, Thor was leaning against the Guardians' spaceship while Brunnhilde, Rocket and Nebula looked unimpressed by their surroundings. Instructing Friday installed in his suit to start recording everything, Tony turned to face Rocket.

"So, what is this planet again?"

"Arexion-4." Rocket answered. "Also called Retreat, because creativity is dead."

Nebula rolled her eyes and informed them, "Once Contraxia became popular as a vacationing planet, Arexion-4 developed many businesses to give competition to Contraxia. That's why they named themselves Retreat."

"The planet sucks or that's what they used to say on Sakaar." Brunnhilde said as she went to lean against the spaceship, next to Thor.

"It's right next to Contraxia." Rocket snorted. "Who in their right mind would give up Contraxia to come here?"

"We should make a move." Steve said, turning to walk to the spaceship that was behind him.

"Before we do that, you guys should get fitted with translators. Otherwise, you won't understand a thing that happens." Rocket said with a huff and opened the door. Ushering everyone inside, he said, "I have the latest universal translators. All I have to do is insert them in you and we will be ready to go."

"Insert them in us?" Tony asked skeptically. He did not want any piece of anything inside him. He had had enough of that in his life.

"Yes." Nebula said. "They are microchips. They need to be fitted with a person's neural system for them to work."

"Can't we just put them in some device and use that?" Tony asked, staring at the small chips that Rocket had pulled out from a side drawer. What was a side drawer doing in the control room of the ship, Tony had no idea.

"They don't work that way. Come on, it is painless. Everyone has one." Rocket beckoned them to follow him. He led them to a sort of sick bay and hopped on the nearest bed. The three humans looked at each other and Steve shrugged and went to sit next to Rocket. If anything bad would happen because of the alien tech, he might be able to resist against it.

Once Steve was fitted with the translator with the help of some sort of injecting device and nothing happened, Natasha too got hers done. Tony hesitated but in the end, sat down next to Rocket.

"So, you are not speaking English, I suppose." Tony said nervously, keeping an eye on the injecting device in Rocket's hands.

"Actually, I am speaking Terran or English or whatever you call it. Quill taught us once when his translator had gotten destroyed during a fight. But no one actually knows the language. Apparently, Quill added it to the central database of all the translators when he was on a raid. That's why people can understand what he says. Obviously, hardly anyone can tell what he means."

"Mm-hmm." Tony hummed as he felt something entering his neck area. He resisted the urge to scramble away or attack anyone. Operations of any sort still left a bad taste in his mouth. As soon as Rocket declared that he was done, Tony quickly moved away and ran his hand over where he knew the translator was inserted. He could feel nothing there, but he could tell it was there. He really wanted to dig in and remove the foreign item from his body, but thankfully Natasha caught his hand before he could do something like that.

"Are you sure you both don't need these babies?" Rocket looked at Thor and Valkyrie.

"I told you, Rabbit, we are born with our own sort of translators. It cannot translate all the languages but it can translate all those that I know and I have studied the two universal languages." Thor explained as they all moved to the control area and sat down, with Rocket as the pilot and Nebula as the co-pilot.

"And I have learned a lot of languages over the years. I don't even need the All-speak to work for me." Brunnhilde added and Rocket shrugged and said, "Fine, strap in. We are going to Contraxia."

"I could have taken us directly there, you know." Thor pointed out.

"Yeah, but we don't want the Ravagers knowing that we have some sort of superior technology or travelling means. It won't sit well with them." Nebula rebutted.

Half an hour later, they touched down on Contraxia and Rocket pointed out that they should probably get into more comfortable clothes. Soon enough, they all were dressed in furs and jackets. Nebula had her face covered completely with some sort of a scarf. Apparently, there was a species who never showed their face to anyone and she was disguised as one of them.

"This is a casino! A space casino!" Tony said with a grin and Steve jabbed him in the side with his elbow. "Don't draw attention," he hissed.

"But it's a casino." Tony hissed back and then added, "With lizards fighting each other."

"Oh yeah!" Rocket whooped. He turned to the others and asked, "You guys wanna place bets?"

"Focus, guys!" Natasha ordered. To Nebula, she asked, "So, where do we start?"

"I am not sure. I am sort of banned from this place. If anyone sees me, they will shoot me on sight and anyone else I am with, so just spread out." Nebula replied. "You come with me." She said to Natasha.

The two of them walked off towards the bar. Rocket sighed and pointed Thor and Steve towards the lounge area and stayed with Tony and Brunnhilde, on the floor.

"Come on, let's place some bets." Brunnhilde said and Rocket whooped while Tony followed them to the nearest table.

X-X-X-X-X

Fandral sighed and sat down on the chair closest to the fire. The six of them had made good time and managed to cover the distance in about eighteen hours. The town they were in, seemed pretty small and was inhabited by all sort of species. Many he had seen before, but there were some that he didn't know existed. When they had happened upon a group of people, Loki had cooked up a story about how their ship had crashed in the icy desert and how they had been caught in the storm. The people didn't seem sympathetic but had at least showed them to the nearest inn.

Blowing hot air into his cupped hands, Fandral looked up at Sif, who was practically sitting on top of the fire and warming her hands. Volstagg was already drinking the tankard of some alcoholic beverage that the grumpy server had placed on their table. Hogun was still inspecting his tankard. He really didn't like grimy things unless it was on a hunt. Heimdall had leaned back into his chair, his eyes closed and hands tucked under his leather cape. This was perhaps the first time Fandral had seen Heimdall with his eyes closed. Loki was sitting the farthest from the fire and in direct sight of the main door. He seemed to be on alert and that made every one of them on alert and jumpy.

Unable to stand the long standing silence from Loki, Fandral asked, "Where to next, Loki?"

Loki looked at him and then smirked, "You will like the next place. The Iron Lotus. It's a brothel."

Volstagg chuckled and Sif stared at the prince. She asked, "Exactly why are we going to a brothel?"

"Because it is in the main city, or rather, it is the main city." Loki answered. "Warm up and then we will continue the journey."

"An entire city dedicated to a brothel? Where have you brought us, Loki?" Fandral asked with a laugh. Maybe this planet was not all that bad, he thought. He watched as Loki cracked a smile. It had been so long since Loki had smiled in their presence.

"An entire planet dedicated to a brothel. It is a pleasure planet. The Iron Lotus is famous or infamous, depending on how one sees it, as the largest brothel in the entire universe. The whole planet is filled with this establishment. We are on the inhabitable side of the planet."

Fandral grinned as he saw Hogun shake his head in exasperation and Volstagg chuckle as he took away Hogun's drink and gulped it down in one go. Sif seemed annoyed but didn't say anything back, which either meant she didn't care really or was too tired to argue.

Loki ran his index finger over the rim of his tankard and the metal mug was cleared of any grime instantly. Satisfied, he took a hesitant sip and resisted spitting out the beverage. It was far too strong for his liking. No wonder Volstagg was downing it like nothing else mattered. He tapped his finger on the metal and the contents were replaced with Asgardian mead that he had once stolen from Thor and kept in his dimensional pocket. Well, it wasn't really stealing since Thor didn't remember that he owned it.

He looked at Heimdall as he took a sip. A part of him wanted to know what the others knew, wanted to shake Heimdall till the gatekeeper had no choice but to tell the truth, but another part of Loki, the part that he had gotten very comfortable with, wanted to just leave them and run away before they all could accuse him of anything. Both were very compelling and Loki was having a hard time deciding what to do next, which was probably why he still hadn't hurt Heimdall or anyone else.

He needed to get to Midgard fast and drop them off with Thor and then run away. But he had to be sure that he didn't see Thor or else he would never be able to leave. Every time his plans had gone haywire, had only been because of his oaf of a brother. As much as Loki liked to think that he could leave Thor for the dead and not care about it, every time he had tried to do something like that, he had failed. He knew that if he saw Thor or rather, if Thor saw him, he would never find it in himself to leave. It was one of the reasons he had not ran after Asgard had been destroyed.

The brothers were like a bow. Thor, the sturdy, ever standing part and Loki, the string that could stretch for as far as possible but would always snap back in place and whenever Loki felt like he would snap and break, he would rush back to Thor. Loki knew that in recent times, he had tested the strength of their relationship far too much, but that had been his habit since childhood. He would push and push and wait to see if anyone pushed back or just pulled away all together. Till now, Thor had always pushed back, except for two times. Once, when Loki had been locked away in the dungeons and again when Thor had tricked Loki on Sakaar and both times Loki had rushed to Thor's side, not wanting the only bond that he cared for, to break off completely. With Frigga gone and perhaps even counting Odin, Thor was the only person Loki cared for and probably the only one who genuinely cared for Loki, despite all his faults, which was why Loki always found it hard to leave Thor alone.

Loki drank the mead in one gulp and addressed the others, "We should keep moving. Midgard is not far from here."

Thinking about Thor had messed his head up. Now he wanted to see Thor, but he knew that he would never think about going after Thanos if he did that. He needed to be careful with his emotions. They were always all over the place when he used up too much energy and right now he was downright exhausted. At least the cold had helped him regain some strength.

Once the others had reluctantly left the warmth of the fire, Loki led them to a dark corner, inside the inn. Looking around, he quickly created a portal and ushered everyone through. They stepped into the biting cold once again, but this time Loki handed out some furs that he kept with him at all times.

The others gratefully wrapped themselves up and followed Loki into what looked like a parking spot for spaceships. This one looked completely filled up. They passed spaceships of all shapes and sizes and colors.

"We have to go to the west side of the establishment. That is where the pathway appears. Now be careful. This place is filled with criminals of all sorts." Loki advised as he led them past a big blue ship that had sort of wings on the side.

"This place is way better than that inn we were just in." Volstagg boomed and Fandral grinned as he looked all around them.

"Yes, now keep your voice low and weapons hidden." Loki sighed as he saw the crowd in front of him. There were some people cheering on a Kronan in a drinking competition. Loki did a double take and reassured himself that it was not Korg. For one, there was no Miek to be seen and for another, there was no way Korg could have come to Contraxia. The Kronan's opponent was a brown, furry creature of some sort, probably a rabbit. He was too small to be able to drink as much as he was. Loki ignored them and continued to usher his companions through the crowds. They were finally able to breathe properly once they reached the bar.

"It doesn't look like half the universe just got erased." Sif said as she sat down on a stool.

"Everyone here is drunk." Hogun observed. "Chances are that they either didn't see half of the universe getting erased or are drinking because of it."

"Are we stopping here?" Loki asked in exasperation as all of his companions sat down.

"Well, we are hungry and this place is far better than the previous one. Anyway, everyone is too distracted to notice us." Fandral pointed out.

Loki looked up as someone in a brown jacket passed by them. On the lapel of the jacket was a yellow pin of what looked like fire. Loki sighed and said, "Fine." He slapped his hand down on the table and revealed a rectangular electronic device. "Get whatever you want and use this to pay."

"Where are you going?" Sif asked with a frown.

"There are Ravagers here, which means they will have information."

"You are not going anywhere alone." Volstagg said.

"Heimdall's sight is already back, isn't it?" When Heimdall nodded, Loki said, "I will not hide myself. You can look out for me."

As they watched Loki walk away towards the other side of the bar area, Sif asked, "Your sight is back? Why didn't you say anything?"

"It is not completely back. Everything is a bit hazy but if I focus enough on one thing, I can locate it." Heimdall answered. "I think the longer I stay out of the pathways, the faster my sight returns."

"Well, then, can you see if Thor is alright?" Hogun asked.

"I can try." Heimdall answered and stared into nothing, his eyes glowing a bit brighter than usual. Suddenly, he gasped and looked around.

"What?"

"Thor is here. I cannot pinpoint exactly where he is, but something of his surroundings look like this place."

"Then we should search for him." Sif said, getting up in excitement.

'Sif, sit down." Hogun said. "Give it some more time and Heimdall will be able to see clearly. We do not know this place and Loki seems to be on edge, which is never a good thing for us, so it will be better if we just stayed here."

"Hogun is right and we are sitting at the bar. Everyone knows you can see everything from the bar." Fandral said and looked around. "Look, there is Loki, talking to someone."

Brunnhilde growled and lifted Rocket up from the table he was standing on. The drink in his hand sloshed around the glass as he continued to spew insults at the Kronan with whom he was having a drinking competition. She and Tony had turned away for barely a minute and the next thing they knew, Rocket was having a drinking competition.

"You know, this reminds me of college and more importantly, the parties." Tony said from where he was leaning against a table and looking at Rocket in amusement.

"Well, this reminds me of a few months ago when I was having a similar competition on Sakaar." Brunn replied and took away Rocket's drink in favor of spraying him with water to sober him up.

"I'm good, I'm good. No need to bathe me, ya dumbass!"

"Yeah, well, you didn't look so good a minute ago." Tony said and moved out of Rocket's range when the raccoon started to shake the water off himself. Brunn didn't have such luck and had water all over herself too.

"Ugh! Disgusting!" Brunn grumbled as she wiped off the water. "You find anything yet or you were too busy getting drunk?"

"Tann has a gambling problem, Jyan lost his spaceship in a bet yesterday, Migo is actually not allowed to be here because he accidently set someone on fire last year…"

"Anything important!" Brunn cut in.

"…and Stril's Ravager clan had to cancel a deal going down in Sector F-32 because in the past two days more and more people are leaving that area. Something to do with some dark forces, yada, yada." Rocket smoothened his fur and looked cockily at the other two, "Happy? What did you guys get?"

"Nothing yet." Tony grumbled.

"Something about Dhell being a bad place to be right now." Brunn answered.

"Dhell is a party moon in F-32." Rocket informed. "Awesome place, but if Thanos is somewhere in that area, no wonder no one wants to go there."

"It's not enough." Tony said.

"What's not enough?" Steve asked, coming up behind Tony.

"A few things that hint that Sector F-32 is where Thanos is, but it could be anything else." Tony answered and nodded at Thor and Natasha.

"The Ravagers don't drop their deals for just anyone." Rocket said. "Where's Nebula?"

"She said she found someone who might have concrete knowledge." Natasha answered. "Something about him being an ex-cop who was on Thanos' payroll. She took him to one of the rooms on the first floor. Coming?"

"Duh."

Loki thanked the bartender for the latest drink and leaned against the bar. The Ravager he had been talking to, had been some low level worker, who didn't have much knowledge of the workings, but he had at least told him that the only reason his clan was even in Contraxia was because of some deal that had been dropped at the last minute. Loki needed more information. He didn't know much about the Ravagers but from what he remembered of his days in the Sanctuary, none of the clans ever went in any area that Thanos or his people were in.

Looking over to his companions, Loki saw them chatting and eating. One of them would occasionally look up and check if Loki was still there. It was annoying him but he did say that he would not hide himself. Shaking his head, Loki took a sip of his drink as he looked over at the crowd spread all over the place. He watched as a group of arguing Xex'ads were broken up by one of the staff members.

Someone bumped into him and Loki sighed and moved away as a rowdy group took his place at the bar. It was then that he whipped his head up again. When the group of Xex'ads had been broken up, Loki had seen someone, but there was no way she could be here. No way. Loki searched through the crowd again and saw Brunnhilde standing next to a furry little creature. It was the same creature that Loki had seen in that drinking game. She was too far away and his view was partially blocked, but the prince was sure he had seen the Valkyrie looking in annoyance at the rabbit.

"What in the name of Odin's beard is she doing here?" Loki muttered to himself and left his drink at the counter in favor of seeking out the Valkyrie. As far as he was concerned, she should have been on Midgard with the other Asgardians and Thor. So, what was she doing over here? He stopped in his tracks as he saw the person standing next to her. Now, what was the Iron Man doing in Contraxia? Of his own accord, Loki looked around in anticipation. If both Iron Man and the Valkyrie were in this place, then Thor would be too. There was no way Thor would have let either of his friends come to such a place on their own.

Loki looked around, almost frantically for his brother. A million questions were running through his mind and he was sure he could no longer be surprised, but yet again, he was wrong. There, to his left, some places away, near a doorway, stood a hooded figure. Normally, he would have stored that information and moved on, but something about this figure stopped him. He could not make out the face thanks to the scarf that covered it, nor could he tell the species or even gender of the person, but the blade that the person was holding, was one that Loki was intimately aware of. It belonged to that blue, cyborg daughter of Thanos. That was something he could never forget.

Thor, Valkyrie, Iron Man and now the daughter of Thanos, that too all in one place. There was no way this could end well for anyone. Nebula! His mind supplied the name of his once tormentor. He needed to protect Thor from her. She knew Thor from Loki's memories. He was sure of it and if she saw him, she would definitely hurt him. Thor may be powerful and strong but Nebula had a cunning mind that almost paralleled Loki's and she and her green sister were famous for having the highest number of kills in the galaxy.

Unadulterated fear clouded Loki as his heart beat increased. He could either find Thor or confront Nebula. He knew which one he preferred but the choice didn't rest with him. He saw Nebula (he was so sure it was her – the blade was unmistakably hers) move a man through one of the doors behind her and from his past visits to this place, Loki knew that they led to the guest rooms on the first floor. The decision was made. He needed to follow her, needed to know if it was really her or it was his mind playing tricks on him. It wouldn't be the first time that happened.

"I lost Loki." Hogun announced as his eyes searched the far area of the bar where he had last seen Loki.

"That lasted longer than I thought it would." Volstagg answered.

Heimdall cleared his throat and said, "He is still in my sight so you need not worry about it. He is in a less crowded hallway."

"Well, Loki does hate crowds and most people in general." Sif mumbled. "What about Thor? Can you see him now?"

"I can." Fandral said, looking towards the area they had come from. "There." He pointed in the distance and the others turned to look at the tall Asgardian.

"What happened to his hair?" Sif asked in worry as they all made their way towards Thor.

"Is it just me or does this place seem far too crowded even after the snap?" Tony asked.

"There are like at least 30 different Ravager clans here. This place is like their unofficial meeting place. Plus, there are other people here too." Rocket answered.

"Where is the exit to the rooms? Thor asked as he pushed some drunk alien away from their way just as the blasting music changed into something fast paced and at once everyone seemed to start dancing as hard as they could.

"Just a bit ahead. It's near the bar." Natasha replied, weaving in and out of the crowd like she did it on a daily basis.

"Thor! Thor!"

Thor stopped walking, making Steve bump into him. "Did anyone else hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Thor! Here!" Volstagg's voice boomed and Thor turned around in surprise. There, in the flesh, were his old friends.

"Volstagg?" Thor looked at them in shock. As the shock wore off, a smile took its place. "Fandral! Hogun! Lady Sif!"

"You all are alive! And together." Thor observed as he hugged Sif.

"Heimdall?" Brunn said in shock and staggered towards her old friend. "Thor, look Heimdall! You said he died."

Thor stumbled back as Heimdall came closer to him. Running his hand over his mouth, Thor said, "You-you… I saw-I saw you…" The blond shook his head and tentatively touched Heimdall. Then he pulled him in a tight hug.

"How?" Thor felt out of breath. He had seen Thanos run a sword through Heimdall. He had seen it. Then how was the gatekeeper standing in front of him? How were his friends, who Heimdall had confirmed to be dead, in front of him?

"It is a long story, my friend." Fandral said with a smile. "It is good to see you after so many years."

"It has only been three years, I think." Thor teased.

"Three long years then." Volstagg said.

As Thor introduced them to his teammates, Rocket spoke up, "Nice to see that your friends are alive and kicking but Nebula is alone with some scumbag. She can probably kill half the people in this room before someone can land a strike on her, but shouldn't we go see if she is already done or not?"

"Yes, sweet rabbit, let's go and get Nebula." Thor said with gusto and they all followed Natasha to the exit. Turning to Heimdall, he asked, "How are you here? On Contraxia?"

Heimdall looked ahead and then smiled at Thor. "You will see, my king."

Loki turned himself invisible as the crowd thinned. He was only invisible to the eye, but as per his word, he could still be tracked by Heimdall. In front of him, Nebula pushed the man with her into a room and followed in. A few moments later she came out and looked around. It seemed like she was waiting for someone. Probably her sister, Loki thought. If only she would take the scarf off, he could tell if it was actually her or not.

As she walked into the room again, Loki cursed under his breath and followed her in as quietly as he could. The room was small and cozy with muted colors as wall paint. It was sparsely furnished with a bed, a chair and a small table. The man was tied to the chair and glaring at Nebula as she took off her scarf and removed her hood.

The Luphomoid grinned as she saw his glare turn into a fearful look and his struggles increased. It had been a few years since she had done something like this, but the heady feeling of being in power and control never really went away and Nebula slowly pulled out her knife and twirled it around in her hand.

Loki weighed his options. On one hand, he could confront her and kill her and hopefully even her sister, if that was whom she was waiting for earlier, or he could just wait and watch as to how the whole thing played out. Maybe the person she had captured had gone against Thanos in some way and she was here to finish the job. He knew he should probably wait and watch, but the anger in him caught up to him and before he knew it, he was rushing towards her. Within seconds he had dropped his invisibility and had her pinned against the wall, one hand pressed against her throat and the other, holding a blade to her abdomen. Her blade was halfway across the room and the captured man was confused as to whether he should struggle to get out or see how everything developed from there on.

"You are…" Nebula struggled for air as Loki pressed harder against her throat and managed to spit out, "supposed to be dead."

"I am good at not being dead when I am supposed to be." Loki answered cockily and pushed the blade harder in warning against her abdomen when she tried to move. He tightened his control over her hands that were pinned with seiðr. He could have had her immobilized completely with only his seiðr but there was no fun in that. He knew sooner or later his fun would be over. Heimdall would have seen his actions by now and would be on his way to stop Loki from killing her, but he didn't really care. If he was getting to kill her, he might as well take as much enjoyment out of it as he could.

"I… thought you did-didn't know how to fight."

"I lied. What are you doing here?"

"You wouldn't believe it." She coughed out.

"You are probably right." Loki said nonchalantly. "Where is your sister? The green one."

Just then the door slammed open and in came the most unusual groups that Loki could imagine. First there was the Lady Natasha and Brunnhilde. Behind them was Thor and Heimdall and then everyone else. Loki didn't bother to check who all entered the room. He stepped away from Nebula but kept her completely pinned by his seiðr.

Tony sat on the bed and broke the silence that had fallen in the room, "This room is far too small to hold so many people. Nobody better sit on me and that includes you too, Rocket."

"Am I free to go?" asked the captured man.

"No!"

"Okay…"

Thor couldn't understand the urgency in Heimdall's words of 'move faster' but he did hasten his steps. It was only because of Heimdall's sight that they knew where to go and Thor finally understood why the all-seeing gatekeeper was in such a hurry. The moment Thor entered the room, his eyes were drawn to the tall figure. For a few moments he didn't understand who it was, but then his brain caught up with his surroundings. There was Loki, his Loki, alive Loki, standing over Nebula. It looked like they came in at the right time, otherwise Loki would have probably killed her. But none of that mattered to the god. His brother was alive once again. How or why didn't matter. All that mattered was that Loki stood there, staring at Thor, looking as shocked as Thor felt.

"Loki? You are alive." Thor said in a shocked whisper and moved forward, pushing Natasha and Brunnhilde out of the way.

"And you have another eye."

Was Loki really here? Did he fake his death once again? What was he doing on Contraxia? So many questions whirled around Thor's head and he reached for the nearest thing that happened to be a tumbler to throw at Loki.

Loki saw Thor reaching for the tumbler and moved it away. "If you throw something at me, I will kill you, brother." Softly, he said the words he had said so long ago, "I'm here."

Thor grinned and moved forward to hug Loki. He didn't care whether it would result in him sustaining another injury, but he wanted to hold Loki.

"Can somebody get me off the wall?" Nebula growled, struggling against the invisible force that held her in place.

Thor stopped in front of Loki and gestured at Nebula, "Loki, if you don't mind?"

"She is Thanos'…"

"Daughter. We know." Thor said with a nod. "She's working with us now."

"She is working with you?" Loki asked skeptically.

"Reindeer games," Tony interrupted from the bed, "she fought against Thanos with us."

Before Loki could do anything else, Nebula growled at him, "You asked about Gamora, my sister. Thanos killed her."

Loki looked at her and figured she was telling the truth. There was no way anyone could fabricate the pain he could see in her eyes and even though he didn't truly believe or trust her, he trusted Thor. So he sighed and waved his hand to release her. Nebula stumbled and almost fell over but Thor held her up her arm till she regained her balance. Throwing a dirty look at Loki, she went to pick up her blade from the floor and faced the captured man once again.

As everyone's attention was now on the ex-cop, Thor poked Loki in the arm. At his brother's annoyed look, he answered, "Had to be sure." Thor grinned and held Loki by the elbow as the others pushed in around to see the alien that Nebula had captured. Tony had been right. The room was really too small to hold so many people.

"So, what did this man do?" Loki asked as he tried to remove Thor's hand from his elbow. He wasn't really succeeding and as Thor tightened his hold, Loki gave up and let Thor hold him for now. "Also, is that a rabbit?"

"Uh yes, it is. His name is Rocket." Thor answered. "He and his team rescued me from the wreckage. Loki, if I knew that you and Heimdall were alive, I would have… but I saw…"

"I know." Loki answered. "I will answer everything later, when there are not so many people pushing me against the wall. Will you let up, you oaf?"

"Sorry." Thor mumbled and moved around a bit so that Loki wasn't squished up against the wall.

"So, the man? How did he manage to get onto the Avengers' bad side?" Loki asked.

"He didn't." Natasha answered and turned to look at Loki. She scrutinized him for a few moments and told him about how they planned to get information from the man about Thanos' whereabouts.

"Please! I'll give up whatever you want. Just let me go. Don't let her come near me." The man yelled as Nebula moved towards him once again.

"Braal, we only want one thing." Nebula said sweetly as she perched on the table next to Braal. "Where is Thanos?"

Braal chuckled and said, "What? I can't tell you that, even if I knew where he was, which I don't. Nobody ever knows where he really is. You know that. A-and they," he nodded at the others, "said that you don't work for Thanos anymore, so… Thanos is the bigger threat here."

Nebula sighed and placed her blade against his throat. "Maybe, but he is not here, is he?"

"No." He gulped and looked at everyone else in the room. None of them seemed very keen to come and save him. "What will I get in return?"

"Woah!" Tony chuckled. "Remind me to not hire this guy for anything. That easy to sell your boss out, huh?"

"You get to live." Loki interjected.

"What are you doing?" Thor whispered to him.

"No, he does not." Nebula hissed at Loki and turned to Braal. "But, you get to die a merciful death, which is something you won't get if Thanos catches you."

Braal looked desperately at Loki and Loki whispered to Thor, "I have a plan." With that he moved towards Braal and motioned Nebula to remove her blade. When she didn't, he smiled at the captive and said sweetly, "Apologies on behalf of my acquaintance. She really does not like to leave people alive. But, listen to me, I guarantee that you will live through this. All you have to do is tell us where Thanos is and I'll let you live. You believe me, don't you?"

Braal nodded as carefully as he could and whispered, "You overpowered her."

"That's right. I did and I didn't really have to do anything at all." Loki continued.

"What is he doing?" Steve whispered.

"Playing the good cop." Natasha whispered back.

"But the mad titan…"

"Thanos is not here, is he Braal? How will he know anything if nobody tells him about it? We are not going to tell him about you and you surely will not, will you?"

"No."

"Where is he? Surely you would know."

Braal looked at Loki then at Nebula and back at Loki. "Remove the blade." Loki ordered and this time Nebula reluctantly withdrew. She really wanted to kill Loki for interrupting her. How dare he?

The captive licked his lips and said slowly and hesitantly, "No one is sure, but…"

"But?"

"There are some… some say that Sector F-32 is unsafe right now. Many people are leaving the area. It is not all that populated, but whosoever comes out from there is spooked. I don't know if it is him for sure, but that is the only place which is marked unsafe till now."

"That's what we heard." Brunn said.

"So did I." Loki said, turning to look at the others.

"Okay, so everyone is saying the same thing about F-32. It is worth checking out. Let's kill him and leave." Nebula said and stood up from the table.

"No!" Braal struggled and tried to move behind Loki, to no avail. He looked at Loki and said, "You said that you won't kill me. I swear I won't tell anyone that anyone was asking about Thanos. Please!"

"We will not kill him." Loki said with finality.

"Oh, so you trust him to not speak a word about us to anyone else?" Nebula said sarcastically.

"Of course not. The speed with which he turned against Thanos is proof enough that his word is worthless. But we do not kill him." Loki smirked and added, "I happened to learn a few things from Ebony Maw."

"Oh." Nebula shrugged and sheathed her blade. "In that case, go ahead."

Loki smirked and turned to look at Braal. "This will not hurt a bit. As a matter of fact, you will not remember it at all."

"What are you doing, Loki?" Thor asked in worry.

"Erasing his memory of us, of this entire conversation. It will not harm him in any other way, if that is your concern. Although it should not be, seeing that you all were ready to kill him only a few moments ago."

Loki placed his hands on the struggling alien's forehead and muttered under his breath. He remembered this one spell from when Maw had been torturing another captive alongside Loki. As far as he could tell, the spell left hardly any trace unless one knew what to look for. It was also completely harmless other than the fact that it would erase a person's memory. But harmless, nevertheless. Once done, the alien lost consciousness and Loki transferred him to the bed.

"Let us leave, then." Loki said and motioned everyone to move aside so he could step out of the crowded room.

"Loki, that…" Thor said as he joined Loki outside the room. Shaking his head, he grinned and pulled Loki in for a hug. "I missed you, brother."

"I was gone for barely a few days." Loki said, hiding his smile in Thor's shoulder and wrapping his hands around Thor. Oh, he was in trouble now. Leaving Thor to pursue Thanos would now be so difficult. As it was, Loki did not want to do anything but go home. He was tired.

"You were dead." Thor said solemnly, pulling away and tentatively putting his hand on Loki's neck, like he had always done. But as Loki tensed, Thor moved his hand to Loki's shoulder.

"Not anymore."

"Let us go home. We have a lot to discuss." Thor grinned and put his hand around Loki as they walked down the hallway.

"Yes, like how you got another eye."

"The rabbit gave it to me. You will like him, brother."

"Get your hand off me or I'll chop it off."


	17. Chapter 17

**(A/N - Hey guys! Thanks a lot for your reviews! As promised, more Thor and Loki in this chapter. I had planned to keep it only about those two catching up but then it got away from me and I only have myself to blame for spending too much time on tumblr and reading more and more headcanons. :D**

 **Lemme know how you guys find this chapter.)**

 ** _CHAPTER 17_**

 _Location: Avengers Facility, New York, Earth/Terra/Midgard_

He had a lot of qualities but he knew patience wasn't one of them, unlike his brother, who was always patient. Now his impatience and more importantly, nervousness and anxiety showed in the manner he tapped his leg on the ground or the way he looked around every few seconds or how he paced and rubbed his palms on his thighs. Thor was pacing the lawn area which Tony had finally declared as the Bifrost site and anxiously waiting for Loki and his friends to appear.

They had all left Contraxia in the Guardians' spaceship and had gone to Retreat, but when Thor had told Loki that he could transport them all using the Bifrost, Loki had refused. Vehemently. Especially when Thor and Brunn had assured him that Thor had already done it before. Loki had argued that it would only harm Thor to attempt such a thing.

 _"Remember when we were children, barely a century old and mother had showed me how to levitate objects?" Loki had said in his exasperated tone that Thor had always been used to. Listening to it once again, Thor had only smiled and ended up getting smacked by Loki for not paying attention. "Remember what I used to do then?"_

 _"How can I forget?" Thor chuckled. "You refused to do anything by hand, always floating things around. I got more injuries from that than anything else in the next century."_

 _"And remember what happened at the end of the week?"_

 _"You… fell sick and I had to do all the work."_

 _"First of all, we were toddlers. We didn't have any work. And second of all, I was not sick, I was in stasis. There is a difference."_

 _"That's not how I remember it. You made me fetch you small and simple things."_

 _"Because, you oaf, I could barely move." Loki rolled his eyes. "That is what happens when you use up a newly gained power. You are hardly trained in using the Bifrost and transporting so many of us and the spaceship is going to drain you, especially if you are doing it not too soon after transporting the people of Asgard, which I am still confused about."_

 _"We will explain it later." Thor had said. "How would you get to Midgard if not by the Bifrost?"_

 _"Did you think that all of us were on Contraxia this whole time? No, we have been travelling. I will continue in the same manner. Midgard is not too far so we should reach there in an hour's time. Asgardian hour, not Midgardian."_

 _"What's the difference?" Tony interrupted the two bickering brothers._

 _"An Asgardian hour is twice as long as one Midgardian hour." Thor had answered and continued to try and get Loki to listen to him. But as usual, Loki had won the battle of words and in the end Thor had to let him carry on travelling the way he had been doing until then. His friends had gone with Loki, not voluntarily. The four of them had wanted to stick with Thor but they were also not going to let Loki go anywhere alone. Thor knew that none of them, barring Heimdall to an extent, trusted Loki. Neither did he._

 _Trusting Loki was like playing with fire – you would always end up getting burned, but over the years, Thor had finally understood on how to deal with his little brother. Loki didn't like people trusting him because in his mind, trusting blindly meant not thinking for their own and in that aspect Thor was to blame to an extent. He had always done whatever Loki had told him to do and had hardly ever thought on his own. No wonder Loki had finally gotten tired of doing all the thinking for the two of them. But now, after years of trying to understand Loki's ways, Thor had finally understood that he or for that matter of fact, anyone, should not take Loki for face value. Loki wanted to see people thinking and coming to their own conclusions, which was why he had never tried to stop any rumor about him. He had always appreciated those who could see beyond what was being shown and Thor had finally started doing just that. He stopped taking things on face value and always tried to dig deeper. It had been his brother who used to do all that work and Thor had never known how to proceed in that area, but not anymore. So, he let Loki do his thing, but he also started thinking about the various ways something could go._

 _Letting Loki and his friends disappear into thin air had been one of the toughest thing Thor had ever done. But he knew it had to be done. It would show Loki that Thor did trust him, not blindly, but enough to not treat him as some sort of criminal or a bad person in general. Thor had asked him questions about how his form of travelling worked and after a few annoyed answers, Loki had finally done that thing where he was smiling but also not smiling. It was a form of appreciation and Thor had just smirked when Loki had rolled his eyes and handed him a silver ring. It was something that Frigga had given to Loki as a present and Loki had promised that he would come to at least take it back. That was when Thor had let him go, albeit reluctantly._

Now Thor anxiously waited for his brother and friends to turn up. He looked at the pocket watch that he always carried but never used. Maybe that was why it looked as good as new. Hardly half an hour had passed, but Thor was just hoping that Loki's estimation was wrong. Obviously, that was like saying that the sun rose in the west, but the god had known weirder things to happen.

Thor looked up as he heard some noise but it was only Tony jogging towards him, followed by an angry looking Clint and a worried Steve. Thor braced himself for the explosion that would be Clint's anger, but he didn't care. He was firm on his word and he was not going to waver at all. They would either agree to take Loki in or Thor would go with Loki. He was not going to leave his brother alone, not after everything the two of them had been through. They were the only family they had left and their home was with each other.

"No way! No frikking way is he stepping a foot in this place. And what happened to him being dead, huh?" Clint yelled the moment he neared Thor and Tony stood in between Thor and Clint as a barrier while Steve and Natasha (where did she appear from?) tried to pacify the angered archer. Bruce was standing some feet away from them but was still in hearing distance and was nervously wiping his glasses. The others were standing a bit further away but the way Clint was shouting, it was obvious that they could hear everything.

"Clint!" Tony tried to get Clint's attention but the archer was fixated on Thor.

"No, Tony. I don't care about anything but my family is in there. My wife, my kids are inside. Loki is not going anywhere near them."

"I get it man, I do. Harley and Jo are also there. Pepper and Rhodey and May are there. Scott's daughter is there, but…"

"No buts. There is not going to be any argument on this. He does not come near my family. I brought them here because this place was safe for them and now you wanna bring Loki here like New York never happened!"

"Woah! Barton, we all are never going to let New York go, okay? But in the light of the new developments…" Steve said, holding Clint back. Thor was rubbing his forehead like he felt a headache approaching.

"What developments?" Clint argued. "That that bastard had been under some influence? That shit is bullshit! I don't care about all that. You cannot let Loki come here."

"Clint," Natasha said softly and somehow that was what Clint listened to, "I think there is some truth in that. You haven't seen this Loki. Thor was correct. This guy is different from the guy who attacked us. I know how you feel about him, I know how you were like after New York, but…"

"But what?"

"You didn't see how he looks at Nebula. It was exactly how you looked at Loki once we had defeated him. I think that Nebula did torture him at some point. Why would she lie to us about anything, anyway? Huh?"

"So, what? We are supposed to let bygones be bygones and carry on like nothing happened?" Clint growled. "Well, something did happen. It happened to me and none of you care about that, do you?"

"Barton," Thor spoke for the first time since Clint had started shouting, "what Loki did to you is inexcusable and none of us are forgetting that, but you should also not forget that that is my brother you are talking about and I have just gotten him back after I thought him to be dead, so I am not letting him go anywhere without me. If you cannot have Loki staying in the same house as you, I will understand it, but you should also understand that I will go where my brother goes."

"Oh, so you are asking me to choose between my friend and my family. Well, surprise. I choose my family, just like you." Clint gritted out and stalked back to the house, taking Laura with him, who had also come out to see what the commotion was about.

"That could have gone far better, Thor." Tony sighed.

"Yes," Thor nodded, "well, words were always Loki's area of expertise."

"Evidently." Tony breathed out. "You know what, buddy. I'll handle this, okay?"

"Thank you, Tony and please tell Clint that I apologize for my harsh words but I am not leaving my brother now." Thor said as calmly as he could and rubbed his fingers over the ring that Loki had given him. Loki would come for it, if nothing else. Thor knew that.

"Clint, honey, will you listen to me, please?" Laura pleaded as Clint stormed through the hallway to the living room.

"What is there to listen? Loki is not coming anywhere near you or the kids. That's it. If we have to leave, we will."

"No one is leaving and we will definitely not want you to leave." Natasha said as she calmly walked in the room. "Just like we don't want Thor to leave. No, Clint, listen to me."

Clint glared at her but leaned against the couch to at least hear what she had to say. Till now Natasha had never done something against Clint and he knew that she wouldn't start now. Plus, she would definitely keep his family in mind before saying anything.

"I care about Laura and the kids just as much as you do and trust me, as long as I am here, nothing will harm them. I know you don't trust anything about Loki and neither do we, but you should at least see this guy before we take any decisions. He is different and he is not crazy. You should have seen how he was with Thor. It was like seeing actual brothers and not enemies."

"It's weird to explain." Steve admitted as he and everyone barring Thor came in the room. "It's weird to even think about it, but seeing is believing, so you should see him and then take any decision and then whatever you decide, we will do it. If you don't want him here, he leaves, no questions asked."

"We don't want Reindeer Games here either." Tony spoke up. "But keep your enemies close, right? I mean the guy is alive. I think it is better to keep him somewhere we can keep an eye on him. We can't obviously trust him, so we should probably keep him nearby. Come on, man. This place is a fortress, you know that."

"I broke in once." Scott interjected and added when Tony gave him an exasperated look, "Sorry, not important."

"That was before everything was set and you got lucky." Tony told Scott. "Anyway, as I was saying, Clint, the whole time Loki is here, you can be sure that there will be someone keeping an eye on him. Friday will obviously be tracking his every move and there will be all the other Asgardians with him. Thor's friends, the royal guards? None of them seem to like Loki all that much. They can obviously overpower Loki. I mean, you should see this one guy, Volstagg. He is huge! I mean, huge! The guy could single handedly pin down Loki."

"Size does not matter." Brunn said from the bar, where she was chugging on whiskey.

"Oh, I think it does." Tony said with a smirk.

Brunn shook her head and said, "You are a child." She finished the bottle in her hand and moved to get another one from behind the bar. "But, if it means anything to you all, I can overpower Loki. I can probably take on Thor too. Maybe, the both of them at the same time."

"Yeah, right." Clint scoffed.

Brunn raised an eyebrow at him and shrugged. "Don't believe me, if that's what you prefer, but I can take the two of them down. In physical fights at least, but obviously, if either of them use their power, then…"

"Oh, yeah. That's another issue." Clint said, turning to look at Tony. "Loki has magic."

"And we have wizards." Tony replied. "I'll call up Wong and see what he can do against Loki. Listen, Loki is getting nowhere close to the children or anyone who is not an Avenger."

"If it is any consolation, I haven't seen Loki harm anyone when we were on that spaceship." Bruce said. "I mean there were kids and normal people like farmers, teachers and blacksmiths and all that, but Loki didn't harm anyone over there."

Clint shook his head and sighed. "Why are you all playing the devil's advocate? Fine. He can come here, but…"

"He will be under supervision the whole time and I'll call up the wizards." Tony said with a nod and pulled out his cell as he walked out of the room.

"I'll let Thor know the rules." Bruce said and went to check if Thor was still outside while Clint collapsed on the couch and wondered if he made the right choice. His family's lives depended on it.

Thor plucked the grass out and watched it blow away in the wind. The sun had set some time back and the lawn was lit by the artificial lights. He was getting restless now. He peaked a look at his watch. It was almost time. If Loki had been telling the truth, he should be here any minute. Thor went over the little speech in his head that he had prepared for Loki. He knew Loki would not obviously like the restrictions that the Avengers had placed on him but Thor had to make him understand the importance of the restrictions. If Loki didn't understand them and refused them, Thor would himself take Loki to Vanaheimr. Loki did always like that realm.

Thor got up when Brunn and Bruce joined him. "Worried?" she asked.

"When it concerns Loki? Always."

"You think he'll turn up?" Bruce asked nervously. He wasn't interested in meeting Loki once again but he hadn't been lying when he said that this Loki was not the same person they all had fought before. Plus, if anyone could bring out the other guy without any effort, it was Loki and for the first time, Bruce wanted to talk to Hulk. At first, it was because the other guy hated Loki but Bruce had a feeling that even Hulk had softened a bit towards Loki. Just a teeny, tiny bit.

"I know he will and not just because he wants this back." Thor said, opening his palm to show the silver ring.

"That's them." Brunn said, pointing as a green and golden portal opened up some paces in front of them and Sif tentatively stepped out of it. The others came out and Loki brought up the rear. He looked around suspiciously and nodded at Bruce when he saw him. Thor smiled and tossed the ring at Loki and it disappeared midair.

"You came." Thor said with a smile.

"You doubted?"

"Not for a moment." Thor said smugly and at Loki's expression, amended, "Well, for a moment."

"That's more like it." Loki replied. He looked around and asked, "Where are your Avengers? No one is coming to capture me?"

"No." Thor said and motioned Bruce and Brunnhilde to take others inside. He slowly walked alongside Loki. "Loki, I am sorry, but they…"

"Don't trust me?" Loki completed. "I know. They, especially that archer would not want me here and you would have argued. So, tell me. Am I to stay in a cage while I'm here?"

"No! Loki!"

"Tempting." Tony said as he let the other Asgardians in the house and blocked the way for Thor and Loki. "But no. There are rules, though. Rule numero uno: you are not to be left alone at any time without one of the Asgardians with you. Number two: You will not try to instigate a fight. If you do, we will hurt you and throw you in the Hulk's containment chamber."

"Because that worked out so well for you the last time." Loki said smugly.

"Brother!" Thor reprimanded and Loki replied, "What? Let me have my fun. Fine, do continue."

"Number three," Tony continued as if Loki had not spoken at all, "you will not hide yourself from the golden eyed dude. Also, you will not turn invisible. Number four: You will have access to go to only a few areas in the house."

"That is fair." Loki said after staring at the wall for some time. "Is there anything else? Like perhaps the Midgardian so called sorcerers?"

Tony frowned and asked, "How do you know about that?"

"I have met the one who looks like you, albeit taller." Loki replied nonchalantly. "Moreover, I can feel their inferior 'magic' in this area. I believe you want them to control me in some manner."

Tony sighed and called out, "Wong!"

The man walked out from behind a pillar and scrutinized Loki. "What?" he asked Tony.

"He can sense your magic."

"He is powerful."

"Thank you." Loki said smugly.

Wong frowned and tried to read into Loki's magic. It was way different from anything they had seen on earth. It was more like the magic of some of their older artifacts – the ones that had magic of their own and not the ones that had magic imbibed in them. It was slightly unnerving to see the amount of magic he had and Wong had an idea that it was what Loki was letting him see. But then again, Strange had said that he had put Loki in an alternate dimension for half an hour or so. What Strange had told him and what he was seeing was completely different and at the power level Strange had been, he should not have been able to capture that much amount of magic for so long. Wong wondered why that had been possible at all. He needed to research on that but for now, he could feel Loki's magic seeping into the wards he had already placed on the Avengers' facility.

"Stop it." Wong ordered Loki. If it kept up, the wards would be useless in no time.

"Stop…? Oh." Loki said and visibly tensed. A few moments later, Wong could feel the wards go back to normal.

"What's going on?" Tony asked, his gauntlets having already formed on his hands.

"What did you do, Loki?" Thor asked in an annoyed tone.

"Nothing harmful."

"His magic was breaking through the wards."

"Then make them stronger." Tony snapped at Wong.

"They are strong." Loki answered for Wong. "Possibly the strongest he can make and I assure you, I was not doing anything untoward. As a matter of fact, I was not even aware I was doing something like that. It is all very natural."

"Explain." Tony ordered. He could hear his teammates talking about the same thing. He was wearing an earpiece just like everyone else, except Thor and he knew that Friday was letting the others hear in on the whole conversation.

"Are you sure you can keep up? It is quite complicated." Loki said with a sigh and leaned against the doorjamb. He was starting to feel light headed. It had been a pretty long journey and he was telling the truth. His seiðr was only trying to absorb energy to regain its original form. It wasn't his fault that the nearest and strongest energy source were the wards, which, if he had to admit, were pretty good and if he really wanted to take them down, it would take him quite a while to do that.

"Try me."

"Stark, can we not do this inside?" Thor asked. He could see that Loki was tired and it was only obvious because he was actually leaning against the doorjamb. He tried to show it as a sign of nonchalance but Thor had known Loki his entire life and he would not be fooled by his brother. He knew when Loki was faking tiredness and when he was actually tired and right now it was the latter. If Loki had wanted to show a casual demeanor, he would have left his weight to be held by his own feet rather than the wooden frame that he was leaning against.

Tony waited for affirmation to come from his teammates, especially Clint and then led the two brothers inside. They went straight to the living room and Friday confirmed in Tony's earpiece that the children and everyone, especially Pepper, were in another area. Tony knew that Pepper would have already overridden his orders and at least opened a screen to watch everything from. She was curious like that.

Loki looked around at everything curiously as he was led through the hallways. For some unknown reason a lot of the things were white in color and it was grating on his nerves. He never liked white colored décor. It always reminded him of either infirmaries or prisons and he had seen enough of that to last a lifetime. So he was especially glad when they entered the living room and almost everything was a different color. There was a bar in the far right corner, right next to the glass paned wall. The remaining room was filled with couches and chairs and some equipment that Loki guessed were for entertainment purposes, mostly because there were moving pictures on them. The last time he had been on this planet, had been for a mission and he was not even counting the couple of times he had come to visit Odin or seek him out at the end. Back then he hadn't had the time to observe the native culture and now he was regretting it. He would have definitely liked to know what each item was and he hated the fact that Thor knew more about the things than he did. It was embarrassing!

The first person he noted in the room was Nebula and he immediately made a note of exactly where she was standing and how quickly one could get out of a room. Despite Thor's assurances that Nebula was with the Avengers now, he couldn't exactly believe the assassin to be anything but evil, which was one of the reasons he had accepted the Avengers' rules without any protest. He knew that they and especially the archer would not believe him to be good either. Moreover, it wasn't an inconvenience to him. After all, he wasn't here to stay, merely to be with Thor for some time before he could find it in himself to continue with the mission that the celestials had given him.

Loki could feel glares coming his way and before even turning to see who it was, he knew that it would be the archer and he was correct. Clint was glaring at him with distrust and disgust. His hands were tightly fisted and sometimes they would twitch as if wanting to just hold a weapon. Loki could sympathize with that. He too wanted to push a knife in Nebula, hopefully in her heart. The others were still looking at him with slight distrust and he ignored them. It was pretty easy to do. There were a few new faces since last time and none of them seemed too eager to come near him either.

"Brother, you know the Avengers." Thor said, patting Loki on the back and Loki resisted elbowing Thor. He should know by now that Loki hated physical interaction in front of an audience.

Tony cleared his throat and pointed at a dark colored man. "That's Rhodey. He's part of the Avengers. He's called the War Machine."

Loki nodded at this Rhodey and noticed that the man had some sort of metal bracing his lower body. There was something wrong there but he ignored it in favor of the next person Tony was introducing. This one was the youngest warrior he had seen. She was barely a child, but she was introduced as a Queen of some nation and Loki inclined his head in a bow.

"So, you are Loki." Shuri said in excitement. She had only seen this guy's photo on the internet but seeing him in person was much cooler. She knew that none of the Avengers wanted her to meet him. They said that he was dangerous but she was sure she would never get another opportunity to meet the alien who attacked them and had opened everyone's eyes to the danger beyond their world.

"And that is Scott." Tony said before Shuri could get Loki to engage in a conversation. She was as old as Peter had been and Tony would have never been okay with Peter meeting Loki, so having Shuri in the same room as Loki was keeping him on edge. "He is also a part of the Avengers."

Scott waved a little and said, "Hi. I'm… Ant Man."

Loki frowned at the name and looked at Thor in confusion and mouthed, "Ant Man?"

Thor shrugged and replied, "I don't know what he can do. I recently met him."

"Come on, dude!" Scott whined. "No one told you what I can do? I can become as small as an ant and I can talk to ants."

"What?"

"That is an oddly specific thing to be able to do." Loki said, hiding his smile at the ridiculous name and ability.

"I'm also sometimes the Giant Man." Scott continued. "Because I can grow huge."

"Nobody calls you that."

"They should."

Loki looked at Thor in confusion, who looked as surprised as Loki. He turned back to look at the Ant/Giant Man and nodded at him. Was it just him or were the Avengers even weirder than the last time he had met them?

"Alright," Tony said loudly and motioned Thor and Loki to sit down, "so, you were going to explain something, Reindeer Games." When Loki looked at the others before turning to Tony, Tony said, "Yeah, yeah, they were hearing in on our talks. Now, explanation. What the hell were you doing?"

"What _was_ happening, anyway? I didn't quite catch that." Scott asked.

"Loki's magic was seeping into the wards placed here." Wong answered.

"Yeah, he said he wasn't doing it on purpose." Tony said, a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"I was not. It is merely a response to energy sources." Loki said with a roll of his eyes. His patience was going to wear thin if the mortals kept up their questioning. He didn't mind being restricted to a few areas of the establishment or being watched, but questioning him was a big no-no in his books. Especially if it was done with not curiousness but suspicion. It was the whole reason he hated the stupid warrior friends of Thor, among a few other reasons. Sighing, Loki went on to give the most simplest explanation he could think of, about how his seiðr would seek out natural energy sources and the wards happened to be the nearest source. For the first time, the Warriors Three and Sif actually knew what was going on before it was explained.

"Why?" Shuri asked and Loki immediately liked her. She was actually curious. It was evident in the tone of her voice and her expression. She genuinely wanted to know more about seiðr. But Loki still couldn't trust the others to not use the information against him, although how they would achieve that was beyond him.

"It is merely a resting response." Loki said carefully and elaborated, "Like how if you use up energy, you need to rest for some time to regain it."

"Then don't do it. Don't rest, don't regain energy." Clint spat out, speaking for the first time. His eyes bore into Loki's head and he was just wishing that Loki would leave and never return. But Tony was right. It was better to have Loki in observation rather than worry about what havoc he would be creating out there. Plus, they had defeated him once. They could do it again and this time, they had more help.

"That is like asking you to not breathe or to make your heart stop beating. It is a natural thing and not a threat to anyone." Loki said and looked at Clint. "I can only assure you that I will not use the wards."

Clint shuddered at being spoken to directly. He hated it. He hated everything about Loki and he didn't care what anyone said, Loki was always going to be evil. Thor's judgement was clouded and the others were probably only trying to see something that wasn't there. They didn't know Loki like how he did. They didn't know what it was like to be under somebody's control like that and it was never going away. He could feel the years wasted on therapy being just that – useless. The moment he saw Loki, he started to unravel. He didn't want to be in the same room as the guy. Thankfully, Thor spoke up just then.

"Perhaps, my brother and friends could rest. They have been travelling for a long time, I believe."

"Yeah, cool. Hope they don't mind bunking together." Tony said. He was not going to give up anyone's room for these complete strangers. "Oh and Loki is going to bunk with you."

"I'd prefer a cage." Loki muttered under his breath, which Thor ignored.

Clint breathed out in relief once Loki was gone from the room. Tony had taken the Asgardians to their rooms and Thor had left with Loki. The archer's hands were shaking and he made his way to the bar. He needed something strong to deal with this Loki situation.

"You okay?" Natasha asked as she sat down next to him and poured a glass for herself.

"I don't know." Clint breathed out. "I'm glad that Thor has his room in another corridor."

They drank in silence for some time and when Clint was back to feeling a bit under control, Natasha asked, "So, what did you think?"

"About what?"

"You know what. Loki. Did this seem like the same person?"

No. That was the first thought in Clint's mind. The Loki he remembered had never been this polite or this casual. He had been uptight. He had hardly ever sat down and now that Clint thought about it, he had looked like shit. But, it wasn't something he was going to admit. He needed to think about things and so he said that he didn't know and he really didn't.

"And this is my room." Thor said proudly as he ushered Loki inside his room. Tony had left Thor to get the others settled in. Thor knew that Tony wanted to check up on the civilians in the house and he didn't blame the mechanic for not wanting to be near Loki. As he had said before, none of them knew Loki the way he knew him and none of them could ever understand why Thor was so inclined to forgive Loki for all the things that had happened in the past.

"Wonderful." Loki said sarcastically as he entered the room that wasn't even half of Thor's chambers on Asgard.

"I know the room is nothing like we are used to, but…"

"Our nursery was better than this."

"Loki, be nice." Thor said jovially and chuckled at Loki's affronted expression. "Come, you must rest, brother."

"I thought you would want, nay, demand to know how and why I am here?" Loki asked, hoping that Thor wouldn't actually ask it right at the moment and still wanting Thor to care enough to ask.

"When it comes to you, Loki, I always have a lot of questions but you are tired. I can see that. Perhaps you would prefer to rest before I ask the million questions that I have."

"Fair enough." Loki glanced at the bed and said, "Could they not have given at least a separate bed?"

"Brother, Stark is being hospitable enough."

"I'm just saying." Loki sighed in exasperation at Thor's expression and said, "Fine, but if you come on my side, I will stab you."

"You are the one who ends up on my side. All the time."

"That's not how I remember it." Loki said and walked into the washroom.

"Because I push you back." Thor replied through the closed door and heard a faint 'whatever' in reply. Thor couldn't keep the giddy grin off his face. Just a few hours back, his future seemed ever so bleak even with the prospect of all the Asgardians being alive, but now, he not only had his friends back but also his brother. Loki hadn't left him alone. Instead, he had willingly come back when he could have run away yet again. He was obviously worried about Loki leaving once he had his fill of Thor. That was what he used to do back on Asgard. He would leave to travel whenever he was bored out of his mind and it was only because of his duties that he couldn't travel as frequently as he wished to. Back then, Thor hadn't thought much about it, but now with nowhere to return to, he wondered if Loki was to leave, would he ever return.

Then there was the whole matter of Thor actually having seen Loki die. He had cried on his brother's body, he had conducted the funeral and yet his brother stood in front of him once again. Did Loki really die? Did he fake his death? And what about Heimdall and his friends? How were all of them alive? Was this some sort of trick or was he just dreaming? Or had he finally lost his mind? By the time Loki walked out of the washroom, Thor had worked himself up into a frenzy and followed Loki's movements with his eyes.

Seeing that Loki had changed out of his usual leather armor into his more casual clothes, Thor asked, "Did you manage to figure out how to work the shower?"

"Yes."

"You used seiðr, didn't you?" Thor chuckled and received no answer, which meant that he was correct.

Loki sat on the bed and looked up at Thor, who was standing next to the only window in the room. He seemed worried and Loki asked, "What is it?"

Thor shrugged, "Nothing."

"Thor."

"Okay, okay. I just need to know," Thor came to sit on the bed and faced Loki and motioned Loki to face him. "Did you fake your death again?"

"What happened to letting me rest before asking me your 'million questions'?"

"Loki, I just need to know this. Did you?"

Loki sighed and asked, "Do you think Heimdall faked his death or your friends? None of us, except Sif were really alive."

"Oh." Thor ran his hand over his face and blinked his eyes in order to not cry in front of Loki.

"What's wrong? I thought you would be glad that I did not dupe you." Loki asked as he started to massage his left palm with his right hand in nervousness.

"I should be glad?" Thor asked, trying to control his anger. "I should be glad that you did not trick me? Loki, that means that you were…"

"Dead. Yes."

Thor's breath hitched and he closed his eyes but all he could see was Loki being strangled and then lying lifeless in front of him. His eye filled up and he tried to control his breathing and rubbed his eyes in an effort to not cry, but that only agitated his wounded eye and it start to burn with the friction of the fake eye rubbing against the still healing socket. He abruptly got up and mumbled about getting some food before Loki would get some much needed rest and walked out before Loki could say or do anything.

Thor ignored Clint, Natasha and Steve, who were in the kitchen and made his way to the cupboards where Tony usually stashed all the junk food. His hands shook as he pulled out a few boxes without reading what they were. He didn't know whether he should hug Loki for being alive or strangle him for pulling that stupid stunt in front of Thanos that got him killed in the first place. Now that Loki was back, all the grief inside of Thor needed an outlet. He no longer had a reason to mourn and it was turning grief into anger and on top of that, the pain from his lost eye was scrambling his brain.

"Please tell me you didn't leave him alone." Clint asked in anger and fear. Both the feelings were crashing inside of him and no matter how many times Steve and Natasha tried to tell him that something was different, his brain wouldn't move past the past.

"Thor, what's wrong?" Steve asked, having noticed the shaking hands and the blind movements.

Thor took a deep breath and said, "I just want to find something for them before they rest."

"Thor." Natasha said softly and put her hands on top of Thor's to stop his movements. He sighed and hung his head and took deep breaths.

"See, Thor spends like two minutes with _him_ and now look at him." Clint gritted out.

"He was dead." Thor whispered.

"What?" Steve asked and Thor whipped around to face them.

"He was dead. Loki was… was dead. I-I thought that maybe he faked his death and was doing whatever he does but he wasn't. He was dead."

"If he was dead, how is he back now?" Natasha asked.

"I don't know. I'll ask him later." Thor sighed. "I just… I thought that maybe he had somehow tricked me and would rub it in my face but that is not what happened."

"Would that have been better?" Steve asked. He knew what it felt like to find a brother or rather a brother like figure back in one's life after seeing them die. Now that he thought of it, he knew that he would have still done anything to protect Bucky even if Bucky hadn't been brainwashed by Hydra. He could understand why Thor was so eager to let go of the past and move on.

"Perhaps. It would mean that he was alive all this while…"

"That wouldn't make you angry?"

"It would, but it also meant that he didn't suffer any pain or such." Thor turned back to actually read the items he had pulled out of the cupboard. "If I had to choose between my pain and his suffering, I would choose my pain. I would rather not have anything harm him even if it means I have to be the one in pain."

Natasha and Steve stared at Thor in astonishment and shook their heads. Steve went to get something from the fridge and Natasha helped Thor in sorting out the boxes. Clint sighed and went to seek Laura out. The only one who could help him get his thoughts straight was his wife.

Loki alternated between walking the length of the room, going through Thor's belongings and anxiously looking out of the window. He could just make out two people walking in the gardens. It looked like a couple and Loki wondered if it was the Iron Man and his lover or the archer and his wife. He knew there were other people in the house – people he hadn't met. He could feel their energies. He could even tell there were children and he knew why none of the Avengers would want him to go anywhere near them. But he could not understand why they would let a known assassin that they all barely knew anything of, near the others. Nebula did not seem to be under any sort of conditions like he was under. Did that mean that none of them knew what she used to do or that they didn't care about her past? If it was the latter, then they were all a bunch of hypocrites who would allow someone like Nebula to roam their halls freely, but keep Loki locked up. Between the two of them, Nebula was the far more dangerous one, even though it was Loki who was more powerful. At least he had a conscience, not that they knew or cared about it.

He turned around when the door opened, his body tense and the illusion of his armor covering him. Seeing that it was just his brother, Loki dropped the illusion and leaned against the wall. He didn't know why Thor had randomly walked out of the room. What was it? Loki had thought that Thor would be genuinely happy that Loki had not lied to him or deceived him this time. The last time Loki had told Thor that he was alive when Thor had thought him to be dead, Thor didn't look very happy about it. But he didn't look that pleased anymore even now. Why was it so difficult to figure Thor out? Thor had always been the one everyone could understand, but lately, Loki had realized that that Thor didn't exist anymore. Or rather didn't exist for him. Now the tables were turned. Thor was the one who figured out what Loki would do and Loki was left grasping at straws when it came to Thor. That had not been his intention all those years ago. He had only wanted Thor to grow up and take responsibility, not become a complete stranger. Not to him anyway.

Loki had always been insecure about everything, especially his position in other people's lives, so it was no surprise to him that his insecurities came back the second Thor had walked out of the room. Did Thor care? He seemed to but now that he found out that Loki had been dead, he seemed closed off. Did he wish that Loki hadn't returned? Would it be better for Loki to leave? He knew it would make everyone's lives easier. It always had. Even when he had left for his travels from Asgard, Odin would call him back citing his responsibilities. When he would return, Frigga would be the only one who would want to know what all had happened. Thor and Odin didn't ask much questions. Thor only cared about any fighting that may have taken place and what Loki had gotten for him and Odin would listen patiently for a few minutes before he would be called away for some or the other work and Loki's adventures would be forgotten.

"Loki!" Thor called out for like the hundredth time and finally Loki snapped out of his thoughts. Loki moved towards Thor and he knew that he didn't want to leave and he wouldn't, not unless Thor specifically told him to leave. In that case, he would not return. There were only so many times he could come back to Thor even after being shown indifference. He had some self-respect after all.

"Sit." Loki ordered and sat down on the bed, waiting for Thor to do the same. The blond obediently sat down and wondered what it could be about. "Take off that ridiculous eye." Loki said and picked up a jar of oil from the bedside table. It had the telltale markings of Eir's concoctions.

"What?" Thor asked in surprise and kept away the items he had been holding. He had already given food to his friends, except Sif, who had already slept off and had brought back a few things that Loki would like.

"The eye. The fake one."

"Right." Thor grimaced as he took the fake eye out. That hurt even more than usual. "Why?"

"Why would you ask that after removing the eye?" Loki tilted his head and then shook it in annoyance. "Never mind. Here, apply the oil." Loki handed over the oil and looked in distaste at the eye. It really was creepy, especially out of its usual position.

Thor silently applied the oil and felt the soothing effect immediately. Loki was still staring at the eye and Thor said with a chuckle, "It will not harm you, brother."

Loki looked at him with the familiar annoyed look and asked, "Did Eir not heal you when she gave you the oil?"

Thor didn't even bother asking how Loki knew that and instead replied, "She did, but it is taking far longer to heal than it normally would."

"Yes, of course it is. You have been using your limited seiðr to use the Bifrost. It is hindering with your healing process. See, this is why I told you not to use it so excessively, but as usual, you hardly listen to me. I told you I could have transported everyone and that ridiculous ship to Midgard, but you would not listen to me."

"That would have probably drained you."

"If it did, I would only need to rest for a few hours and I would be back to normal. I'm not the one who has some healing to do." Loki said as he put away the creepy eye in a jar and moved it to the bedside table. He knew he was stalling. He wanted to ask Thor why he had left in such a hurry, but he couldn't make himself do it. What if he didn't like the answer?

A frown formed on Thor's face and he realized something. Something that he had said earlier might ring true for even Loki and he gripped Loki's wrist as his brother went around doing unnecessary things like fiddling with the jar of oil.

"What?"

"Loki, why did you attack Thanos with only a knife?" Thor asked abruptly as realization started to set in. "You would know better than anyone else that Thanos could not be defeated by just a stupid blade."

"Why did you say that?" Loki asked in fear. What did Thor know? Did he know about the time Loki had spent under Thanos? Sure, Loki had hinted on a few things but none of them clearly said that Loki knew Thanos well or rather, well enough to not attempt ridiculous things. He was not ready to reveal that to anyone, especially Thor.

Nebula! She was here. Would she have told Thor about Loki's time on the Sanctuary? But why would she do that? And if Thor knew, did anyone else? Was that why Iron Man had easily agreed to let Loki stay?

"I asked you first."

"Thor."

"Loki." Thor sighed at Loki's expression and admitted, "Nebula might have told us somethings."

"Us?"

"The Avengers."

"Are you…" Loki growled and his expression turned murderous. Thor's grip tightened when Loki tried to wrench his hand away. He hated it when Thor used his superior strength on him. "What did she say?"

"That you… that you were his captive." Thor said rapidly and asked, "Why did you not say a word about this to us?"

"What makes you…"

"Don't try to deny it. Why would she lie to us? She thought you were dead too. She had no reason to say false things. Loki, why didn't you tell us?"

Loki scoffed and pulled his hand away and thankfully Thor let him. He didn't want to deal with a broken wrist right now. Although, that was a better prospect than having to deal with Thor's questions and his stupidly sad expression. Bitterly, Loki bit out, "Oh, I should have told this to you? When exactly would I have done that? When I was chained up like some animal? When _father_ told me that my birthright was to die? Oh, don't look at me like that. You would have known it, had you cared to attend my so called trial."

"Loki, I…"

Loki didn't allow him to speak. The years of suppressing his anger were really not doing him any good and he was spewing all his hatred out. "Oh, perhaps I should have told this to you the numerous times you came to visit me in the prison. Oh, that's right. You didn't."

"Father had forbidden us…"

"Mother still came. But you could not be bothered, could you now?"

"I was angry with you."

"Angry?" Loki scoffed and got up to pace around the room. "Thor, I know you. You were not angry. You want to know what I think. I think you were ashamed. Ashamed to be associated with me and when father forbid any visitors, you took that chance up and you hid behind his directive when all you have done over the years is break his rules."

Thor hung his head. This was devolving real fast. This was not what he had expected when he had asked that question. Perhaps, he should not have asked it in the first place, but then again, all they had done was push away their talks to a later time. Even on the Statesman, when they had no work and were locked up within close quarters, they had always managed to avoid actually talking about things that mattered to both of them.

Thor got up and went to stand in front of Loki. His brother was right, he did know him. "You are right, you know."

"Of course, I am right." Loki tried to move away but Thor held him by his arm and received a glare for his troubles.

Thor took a deep breath and said, "I was… I was ashamed. But Loki, had I known…"

"Then you would have pitied me."

"No, Loki. Do not twist my words."

"Then speak clearly."

"You are correct. I was ashamed of you. I never thought that I would have to bring you home in chains and when I saw that no one was actually surprised about it, I thought that perhaps I had been wrong all along. Perhaps I saw good where there was none. And I know that I was wrong to think that but back then… it was too easy to get swayed by what everyone else thought. Mother was truly the only one who actually believed in you and I told her that she should not hold such high hopes."

Thor managed to look at Loki's face and he realized that Loki was pretty close to tears right before Loki's mask of indifference slid on. He couldn't even remember the last time he had seen Loki cry and that too because of emotions, but just then he remembered an image of Loki offering the Tesseract to Thanos and he could swear that a tear had rolled down Loki's face. His theory was starting to make sense, but before he could ask Loki anything else, he needed to come clean. He could not, would not expect Loki to say the truth, when he himself had been hiding behind false interpretations all this while.

"You are right, I have always broken father's orders when it suited me and I could have done it even then, but I did not want to. But it was not because I didn't care, I did. It was because I didn't want to see you like that. I didn't… didn't want anyone associating us as brothers at that time. So, I ignored you. I was wrong. I should…"

Loki stepped away and said stiffly, "I apologize for being such a burden on you."

"Brother, please…"

"Just say it."

"Say what?"

"Say that you want me gone and I will leave. You would never have to see me again. You would never have to be associated with me again."

"Never. I do not want you to leave, now or ever. Okay?" Thor said in a panic. He couldn't lose Loki again, not so soon after getting him back. He knew his words cut deep but he wanted Loki to know that he was wrong then and he would never make such a mistake again. The only thing that gave him hope was that Loki was actually asking Thor to make him leave. The old Loki would have already left by now. That was the only sign that Loki too wanted to make amends.

"Then what do you want Thor?"

"Loki, I want us to be brothers again. I was wrong, so very wrong. I knew something was off back then but I didn't listen to myself, only to others. That was what you had always told me – to listen to myself, but I didn't do it. I should have. I should have come to you, talked to you and tried to understand what had happened after you had… you had let go. I should have listened to mother. I should have done a lot of things but I didn't and because of that we lost a lot of time. Can we not try to be a family again?"

"You want to be brothers when not a few moments ago you were telling me how ashamed you are of me?"

"Was."

"There is a difference?"

"I hope so. I was confused. About a lot of things."

"Like?" Loki asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You were not the only one struggling with the news that you are not my brother by birth. I may not have been as affected as you were but it affected me too and I wanted to show everyone that it didn't matter. I called you brother, I wanted you to do the same, but then you didn't. Instead you wanted to put as much distance between us as possible and when father did just that, I accepted it instead of fighting against it."

"Well, that was how it was supposed to be." Loki said nonchalantly. "You, mother and Odin. He did away with Hela when she wouldn't stop doing the things he had taught her to do and he locked me away when he realized that I was not worth all the trouble I brought along."

"He banished me." Thor added.

"For two days, Thor. It was just for two days and you were enjoying yourself. You are not supposed to enjoy punishment! Nor are you supposed to fall in love while in banishment or make lifelong friends."

"Or fall in love with and protect the world you are banished to." Thor said with a small smile, which in turn made Loki smile.

"Exactly. What is wrong with you?" Loki tried to stop smiling but it wasn't really possible. It reminded him of all the times he and Thor had fought over the years and then ended up laughing while making up. Thor snorted and the two of them ended up laughing.

"You are wrong, you know." Thor said when the two quieted down a little. "That was not how it was supposed to be. You are also a part of the family, regardless of what all has happened. You never stopped being a part of it."

"And here I thought open communication wasn't our family's forte." Loki said with a smile. Hearing those words meant a lot to him, more than he cared to admit.

"New family." Thor replied and tightly hugged Loki.

"Let go of me."

"Not unless you hug me back."

"I hate you." Loki grumbled good-naturedly and made a whole show of hugging Thor. "Happy? Now let go of me."

"You still haven't answered my question, you know."

"What question?" Loki asked innocently. Damn! Why hadn't Thor forgotten the stupid question?

"You know what question. Why did you attack Thanos with just a knife when you knew that there was no way it would have worked? Even I knew that."

"Oh, did you? Was that why you attacked him with a metal rod?"

"I did that?" Thor asked in confusion. He had been so full of adrenaline and fear that half of the things were just a blur.

"Yes, you did. Right after he killed Heimdall."

"Huh." Thor scrunched up his face trying to think about that but looked at Loki after some time. "Don't change the topic."

"I tried." Loki shrugged and went to sit on the bed and went through the few foodstuffs that Thor had brought with him. When Thor joined him on the bed, he asked, "Did _she_ tell you what Thanos does when someone fails him?"

"Death is a mercy. That is what the rabbit told me."

"I was told that if I were to fail… they would make me long for something as sweet as pain." Loki said in a detached tone and Thor resisted the urge to make sure that Loki was fine. If he made any moves, he knew Loki would not continue. "I understood what he meant when the Statesman was attacked. Thanos would have… he would have harmed you, Thor."

"Nebula said that I should have been the one who died. Not you. You knew that, didn't you?" Thor said in resignation. "You knew that Thanos would kill me and you, what, attacked him for that?"

Loki scrutinized Thor's face and chuckled derisively. "You already know the answer, Thor."

"I want to hear it from you."

"Fine." Loki said defensively. "I attacked him to save you. Are you happy now? Thanos would have killed you and I did not want that. I would not have you die because of my mistakes. I knew he would not let me live if I attacked his person. It was a foolproof plan, Thor and it worked."

"How could you know that he would not kill me after he killed you?"

"Because I know him. He has a misguided way of balancing things. That is why he kills only half of the population. That is why only half of the universe has been erased. He knew we are brothers and if he killed one, he would not kill the other. Balance, you see."

Tear rolled down Thor's eye and he sniffed. "You idiot!" he said as he punched Loki in the arm. "I am the older one. I am the one who is supposed to protect you, not the other way round, Loki. Not the other way round."

"You are too important…"

"And what, you are not?"

"Too important for the universe, you oaf. Between the two of us, you have a better chance of killing Thanos. That is too good an opportunity to let go of. I could not have him kill you and lose what little chance we have of getting rid of him."

"No, no." Thor shook his head and looked Loki in the eye. "Promise me, Loki. Promise me that you would not do something like that ever again."

"You mean, choose between you or me." Loki sighed and said, "No promises, Thor. I have done it when we fought the dark elves and when we went up against Thanos and if I have to make such a decision in the future, I cannot make a different choice. I'm sorry, Thor, but I cannot."

Thor shook his head vehemently and put his hand on the side of Loki's neck. "I cannot lose you again, brother. Not again. I have already lost you three times. Loki, please don't make me go through this again, please. I beg you. I won't survive it yet another time."

Loki placed his hand on top of Thor's and whispered, "I'll try my best." He smiled a little at Thor, hoping to receive a similar response but the desperate look didn't leave Thor's face and he changed the topic. "Now come on, brother. I am truly famished."

"Yes, of course." Thor muttered and wiped off his tear. He told Loki about the food he had gotten and the closest thing Loki could compare it to back on Asgard. He knew that Loki didn't want to talk anymore about the feelings. He had always been the first one to shy from them even when they were mere children. But Thor could not lose his brother once again. He wasn't kidding when he said he couldn't survive it again. He had gotten Loki back and he would do anything to keep him safe, keep them both safe.

"By the way," Loki said nonchalantly as he bit a pop tart hesitantly. Just because Thor seemed enthusiastic about it, didn't mean Loki would feel the same way and anyway, he was the fussy eater out of the two of them. "You do know that the one you keep referring to as 'rabbit' is actually a raccoon? I know, at first look he looks like those bigger rabbits but he isn't really."

Thor snorted and said mischievously, "Obviously, brother. But I told Stark that we call a raccoon a rabbit and now everyone seems to think the same. I can't seem to stop it."

Loki stared at Thor and started laughing at Thor's little trick. "That is the most useless trick I have ever heard of, Thor. I like it."

The two of them continued to talk about various things, mostly their past tricks and pranks but nothing important as they ate and the slight tension still hung in the air. It would not go away completely but the two of them were pretty comfortable with uneasy tension between them. It had been their way since forever and just one little talk would not overcome years of conditioning.

It was a few hours later, long after Thor had refused to sit with his friends for dinner and had instead turned off the lights so that he and Loki could rest. He had fallen asleep quite easily, as had been his way. Loki could tell exactly when Thor had slept off. The blonde's breathing had gotten heavier and it had soothed Loki's nerves to hear and feel the normalcy in such an action.

Sleep eluded Loki and he restlessly turned over and looked at Thor's silhouette. The image was so normal that Loki could almost imagine being on Asgard, sleeping in Thor's room, either after a night of partying that had ended up in his brother's chambers or just talking and teasing each other for hours before succumbing to rest. Loki could remember the last time he had shared a bed with his brother. They both had been pretty drunk after almost partying an entire night and Loki, being the slightly coherent one, had managed to drag Thor to his chambers without falling over too many times. It had been hilarious but exhausting and by the time Thor was safely in bed, Loki too had collapsed and the two had slept into late afternoon the next day. They had only woken once Frigga had stormed into the room to check up on them and woke them up by lecturing them about proper behavior. She had obviously then given them potions to get rid of the resulting headache, both from the excessive drinking and the unceremonious way they had woken up.

Loki had a bitter sweet smile as he thought of his mother and the simpler days. He raised himself on his elbow to look at Thor. Sometimes Thor had that habit of randomly waking up and scaring the Hel out of Loki. Looking down at Thor, he noticed something that somehow had eluded him before. A single silver chain peaked out from his brother's shirt and Loki frowned. Thor did not like wearing jewelry. It was more of Loki's thing, even though he covered it up with illusions.

Loki looked at Thor. Still asleep. Good. Gingerly, he pulled out the chain to see what was so special that Thor would actually wear it. It wasn't anything precious, so it must be of sentimental value. But what could it be? Thor was the type who would actually wear something just because it had some sort of sentimental value. Loki, on the other hand, wore things of monitory value. Sentiments were not something to be worn for the world to see. People could and would take advantage of it. Loki knew that. After all, he too took advantage of it. That was why he never showed his feelings to anyone. Thor and Frigga and sometimes Odin, had been the only exceptions.

Loki frowned at the chain. It was simple and quite flimsy. It could easily be broken and Loki put a charm on it so that it wouldn't. If it was that important to Thor, then the oaf would really wear it everywhere and that would increase the chances of it breaking. At the end of the chain was a small glass container and inside it was something that Loki couldn't make out. He squinted at it and let a small light surround the item. He looked to check if Thor had woken up but his brother hadn't even stirred. His eyes widened as he recognized the contents. It was a braid, one that he wore a long time ago. He had given it to Thor as a promise of returning home.

Leaving the chain, Loki went back to his side of the bed and gazed at the ceiling. With Asgard gone, Thor really had nothing that belonged to Loki. He did say that he had gone to Vanaheimr. Perhaps this braid was there in their joint chambers. Loki leaned over Thor again and placed a protective charm on the braid. It would never fray again. Lying down once again, Loki closed his eyes and decided to make sure that neither he nor Thor died anytime soon. Before, when Thor had said that he could not lose Loki again, Loki hadn't grasped the depth of his brother's feelings. He knew that if anything happened to Thor… he couldn't even bring himself to imagine such a situation. Perhaps that was what Thor had been trying to say to him. In that case, Loki had to be really careful with the future plans. He could no longer be careless and reckless. He had some planning to do – actual planning and not some half-baked outline of what to do.

As plans whirled around in his mind, Loki finally fell asleep. His breathing evened and Thor cracked his eye open. He had woken up when his brother had been fiddling with the chain. The older brother looked at the slight greenish hue to the glass container and knew that Loki had placed some sort of charm on it. Smiling, Thor looked at Loki and closed his eye.


	18. Chapter 18

**(A/N - Hey guys! Here's the new chapter for you all. I had fun writing this, especially trying to think from Clint's perspective. Don't hate on poor Clint. He has been through a lot and is trying to cope with it all. I know he will come across as an asshole because we all love Loki but he can't just forgive Loki for what happened and he shouldn't have to, just because everyone else seems to want to.**

 **Anyway, here's the new chapter with Clint's thoughts on Loki, more Thor-Loki brotherly moments and Loki deciding on whether to come clean or not. Hope you guys enjoy this.**

 **Thanks a lot for all your reviews! :D)**

 ** _CHAPTER 18_**

"How pissed off do you think Thor would be if I kill Loki in his sleep?"

Laura blinked her eyes open and looked around to see her husband's silhouette on the windowsill. She sighed and sat up, running her hand through her hair. "Come here." Clint dragged himself across the room and sat down heavily on the bed. Laura pulled him down till his head was resting in her lap and she asked as she stroked his head comfortingly, "Did you sleep at all?"

"Like anyone can sleep with that murderer roaming around freely." Clint said vehemently but made no move to get up. "I can't believe that no one actually cares. I mean that monster threw Tony out of a window, but Tony is all relaxed about it. I don't get it. How can they not see that this was such a huge mistake?"

"Honey, none of them have experienced what you have gone through. They will not get it." Laura said, trying to swallow the bile rising in her throat. The minute they had been told of Loki's arrival, she had wanted to take the kids and Clint and get out of there. But it was obvious that Clint needed her to be clearheaded and she tried to do just that. She had seen this Loki through a screen that Pepper had set up. He seemed… normal, but she knew the evil behind the innocent look. She had been the one to calm Clint down every time he had a panic attack or a flashback. She had been the one who had stayed up night after night with Clint when he was too afraid to sleep. None of the Avengers knew what he had gone through. He hadn't trusted them back then and he didn't want them to see him as weak even after she told him that he was the strongest of them all to be able to survive such a thing.

"We should leave." Clint said after a few moments of silence. "I can't risk you and the kids for Tony's experiment of seeing if _Loki_ is good."

"As nice as it sounds," Laura said but Clint interrupted, "You don't want to leave?"

"I don't want to put the kids at risk…"

"So we can go. Anywhere. I don't care." Clint said as he sat up and turned to face his wife. "No one can find us. I'm that good."

"I know you are." Laura said with a smile which turned into a frown as she saw the door open. "Coop? What are you doing up at this hour?"

"Lila kept kicking me." Cooper said as he ran and jumped up on his parent's bed. He looked at Clint and asked, "We are leaving? But I don't want to leave. I like Harley and Jo and Cassie. We just got here, daddy."

"It's not safe anymore, Coop." Clint sighed as he took in his son's disappointed face.

"Because of Loki?"

"Yeah, kiddo, because of him."

Coop yawned and said, "But Uncle Tony said that you all are so strong that you all can take him down and we have Hulk!"

"Just go to sleep, Coop." Clint scooped up his son and laid him down next to his wife. Within minutes the boy had slept and Clint rolled out of the bed and took his knife and gun from the bedside drawer.

"Where are you going?" Laura asked with a frown.

"For a walk." Clint replied as he put on his shoes. "Stay with the kids. I need to clear my head. Don't worry, I'm not gonna take on an alien on my own. I haven't lost my mind. Yet."

"Be careful."

Clint nodded and walked out of the room. He looked to the left. There, some paces ahead was the other corridor where Loki was sleeping. So close. So very close. He could just kill the guy, but he knew that would be impossible to do so, especially with Thor so close. Instead, the archer walked down the staircase to the right. A little walk in the early morning would probably clear his head up and if that didn't work, he could spend hours in target practice.

Barton stopped in his tracks as his hearing aid picked up some slight noise and he crept quietly in the opposite hallway. The closer he got, the louder the noise got, or rather the music. Normally no one could hear the music from Tony's lab, so Clint deduced that the lab door must be open.

He wasn't wrong. The lab door was left open just a teeny bit maybe because of the numerous trips to the pantry that Tony made Dum-E take. He himself could never be bothered to remember things like eating and drinking and his bots took care of that area. Clint nudged open the door with his foot and peeped inside. Tony was hunched over one of his workstations, fiddling with something that Clint couldn't make out. The music was far too loud than required and Clint wondered how Tony could even hear himself think with that much background noise but Tony had once told him that the loud music was so that he could drown out all his other thoughts. The archer hadn't understood it then and he still didn't understand it as he walked into the lab.

"Tony. Tony!" Clint called out and when that didn't catch his friend's attention, the volume lowered drastically on its own. Tony tsked in annoyance and glared at his computer. "Tony?"

The inventor whirled around suddenly and frowned at Clint. "How did you get in?"

"The door was open."

"Dum-E!" Tony yelled. "How many times have I told you to manually make sure that the door is shut behind you? Seriously!"

As Dum-E made a sad sound, Clint perched on a table. "So, what are you doing?"

"Working on my suit. Why are you up?"

"Didn't sleep."

"Yeah." Tony turned to type something and the layout of the house came up, colored in red and green. He pointed at the screen and said, "Areas where he is allowed and not."

"Why is he here?" Clint could barely contain his anger. "Why do we care if what he did was on his own or not. The bottom line is he did all that and he doesn't care. I'm sure of it, so why do we?" Clint watched as Tony did away with the screen. "Why are we putting our families in danger just for Loki?"

Tony looked at his friend and sighed, "Honestly, I could care less what happened to him or what he does. The guy deserves to be locked up with the key thrown away for good."

"Then why isn't he? We know where the Raft is. We can just put him there. No one has escaped from there and I know for a fact that you lowered the security so Steve could get in and out."

"For starters, that place is inhumane. You know that."

"So is Loki. It suits him."

"Clint, I get why you don't want him to be here. Neither do we."

"Do you? Get it?" Clint asked in anger. "Because all I see is my friends ganging up on me."

"Now you know how it feels." Tony mumbled. He still hadn't forgotten how everyone he had considered family had turned his back on him when he had talked about signing the Accords. Sure, that was not his best decision but friends and family were supposed to stick around in both good and bad decisions and his hadn't. Even though he had forgiven them because he didn't want to hold on to grudges, he would never forget it.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Clint gritted out and Tony sighed.

"Nothing. Just forget it." Sometimes he forgot that Clint had better hearing than them thanks to the enhanced hearing aid. "As I was saying, of course we don't want him here, but think about this. What if Nebula is right? What if Loki was really tortured and all that? What if it wasn't his decision to come here and do what he did?"

"What about it?" Barton seethed. "You too were tortured, weren't you? Did you give in to their demands? Nope, you created Iron Man and you got out and you hunted each one of them and killed them. Natasha was under influence for so long and what did she do? She started acting out, reaching out to anyone who would listen and we did. We got her out and that was possible because she wanted to do the right thing. All of us, well, not Steve – I mean that guy's morals are impeccable and I am not even counting Thor in this, but everyone else could have gone in a different direction, but we didn't. Because we wanted to do the right thing. And what did Loki do? Instead of fighting back, he came here, killed hundreds of people, destroyed far more lives and still didn't pay for it and now he gets to live here. So, why don't you think about that?"

Clint turned around and walked away. As he reached the door, Tony suggested, "How about we ask him today? We ask why he did it, if it was his plan or not and we get to the bottom of this. Then we can decide what to do. I know we can't trust what he says but it will be something to go on with."

Clint turned around with a frown and nodded. "What was the other thing?"

"What?"

"You said, 'for starters'. So, what is the other reason to bring him here and not the Raft?"

"Oh, that. If Nebula is right, then Loki must want revenge and we can use any help we can get in going up against that thing. You haven't seen Thanos. He is powerful and we need all hands on deck, even if those hands deserve to be in cuffs."

Clint gave a slight nod and walked out. He made his way to the firing range. Forget the morning walk, he needed to shoot something, preferably Loki, but for now, just a printout of his stupid face would do.

Thor blinked his eye open and groaned as the morning light hit his face. He should have drawn the curtains the previous night, but as usual he forgot. Back on Asgard he didn't have any such problems. His chambers faced west, so he never had to worry about drawing the curtains. Closing his eye, Thor turned around to avoid the bright light. He sighed in relief at the relative darkness and opened his eye, only to jerk back in surprise. Thor took a deep breath to get his pulse back to normal and raised himself up on his elbow. Even after centuries of witnessing this in the morning, Thor still jumped a little every single time he woke up to Loki's head on his pillow.

Thor looked beyond Loki and there was Loki's pillow, all fine and it did not even look touched. His brother had been doing that since they were children and at first it had been annoying but slowly Thor had gotten used to it. Loki was lying diagonally and Thor resisted moving Loki away. Instead, he decided to draw the curtain. If Thor's moving around hadn't woken up his little brother then it was safe to assume that he would be sleeping for quite a while. But Thor forgot that no one should ever leave a warm spot on the bed that Loki was on because more often than not, he would make it his and for sure when Thor turned around to get under the blanket again, there was Loki, in his spot, sleeping as if he had no worries in the world. Thor groaned and gave up. He did not want to spend the next half an hour pushing Loki to the other side.

An hour later, Thor found himself looking at a still sleeping Loki. He was bored. What was the point of having his brother there if he was going to be sleeping the whole time? Prodding Loki with his toe, Thor called out, "Loki, get up. It's almost 10 in the morning."

"It's barely 9, you idiot," came the mumbled reply as Loki squinted at the bedside clock and pulled the blanket over his face.

"Come on, get up. I'm bored."

"Go 'way 'or."

Thor grinned and incessantly poked Loki in the side while saying 'get up' the whole time till Loki kicked him in the gut and turned around to go back to sleep. Thor quietened down for almost fifteen minutes and then looked mischievously at his sleeping brother. What he was going to do was probably going to earn him a stab wound at the very least but it would be fun for the time being. He crept slowly to the other side of the bed, away from Loki and then quickly pulled the blanket away from his brother and ducked just as Loki sat up and growled at him in annoyance.

"What do you want?" Loki gritted out as he glared daggers at Thor, not literally although they were not far behind.

"Nothing. Get up, we'll go down." Thor replied nonchalantly as he bundled up the blanket and stepped away from the bed. Grumbling, Loki dragged his feet to the washroom. As he passed Thor, he quickly summoned his dagger and stabbed him in the arm, making Thor yelp and double over.

"Ow. I deserved it." Thor yelped as he clutched his arm and pulled out the dagger.

"Yes, you did."

"What happened to you?" Brunn asked as she saw Thor clutching his arm and a smug Loki walking behind him. Those two were the last to enter the kitchen where everyone had gathered. The civilians were as usual, in some other part of the house.

Sif looked up from her plate to take in the brothers' appearance and grinned, "Thor must have pulled Loki's blanket." The Warriors Three looked at each other and laughed as Sif explained, "It happens all the time, you see. There was this one time we were on a hunting trip and had camped near a river for the night. Come morning, Thor had decided to wake Loki up by pulling away his sheet. It ended with them wrestling and falling into the river and getting caught in the current."

"It was hilarious. You should have seen them." Fandral said with a laugh as both the brothers scowled at him.

"Did he stab you?" Bruce asked as Thor said down beside him and looked at the cut in the dark blue t-shirt that Thor was wearing. Loki, for some reason, was dressed in an all-black suit with his hair jelled back but he seemed to look better than the previous night.

"Yeah, it's almost healed anyway."

"Are you kidding me?" Clint asked. He was standing near the other door of the kitchen, away from the Asgardians.

"I don't think so." Bruce answered and shrugged. "Apparently, this is normal for them."

"Don't worry, my friends. Loki has been stabbing me ever since he learned how to use a blade." Thor chuckled as he looked at an annoyed Loki.

"You are not making things better, Thor." Loki hissed at his idiotic brother. The oaf really had no clue how to read a situation. The mortals were getting anxious and his brother was grinning. "I don't think your friends understand what you are saying."

"With a wooden blade, right?" Brunn asked casually. She could understand what the king was talking about. At first, it sounded dangerous but once she had heard more stories, she could understand the dynamics of the brothers. It was all harmless fun, for the most part anyway.

Thor laughed and looked at Loki. "Shall I…"

"Don't even think about it." Loki warned, pointing his fork at Thor in a threatening manner.

"Okay." Thor grinned and took a deep breath. "So, the wooden blade was actually because Loki would oomph!" Thor looked in annoyance at his brother who was glaring at him even when his leg was kicking Thor under the table. "Loki would…" Thor moved back as Loki tried to jab him with his elbow and continued talking rapidly while everyone looked on in amusement, except for Clint. "Loki would stab and cut and rip through everything. So father decided to give him a wooden blade. Especially after he ripped open father's favorite… Ouch! Loki!"

Loki made a show of innocence as he casually plucked his fork out of Thor's hand and wiped it clean with his seiðr and continued like nothing happened while Thor wiped the little blood with a napkin. Soon enough his wound started to close and the others sighed in relief.

"What the hell was that?" Tony asked the brothers. The others were also on edge. The whole thing had barely taken a couple of seconds and none of them had seen it coming. Thor, however, looked mildly inconvenienced.

"A demonstration." Loki said flippantly.

"What I don't understand," Scott said, "is why there is that much stabbing involved?"

"You see," Thor started saying and looked at Loki to see if he would object and continued when Loki seemed to have busied himself with something else, "when we were in our sixth century, we were both being trained in weapons combat…"

"You said that he stabbed you when you were eight years old." Bruce interrupted. "I'm guessing that is in human years."

"Yes, of course it is." Loki said in an offended tone. "When we were actually eight years old, we were as good as a newborn babe."

"I thought you guys had a ten year difference." Steve commented in confusion.

"It is more like twelve years, but that hardly matters. Especially in Midgardian years." Loki said and looked at Thor. "You forgot the age difference?"

"No?" Thor grinned sheepishly and turned to face the others. "Anyway, we were being trained in weapons combat and Loki liked smaller blades so our father gave him a knife as a name day present."

"Who gives knife to practically an eight year old?" Rhodey asked.

"I had a sword." Thor said proudly and Tony said, "Of course you did. Carry on."

Thor nodded and continued telling his tale, "Loki used that blade to practice whatever moves he had learned for the day. It was fun till he started to practice on me."

"You started it." Loki pointed out.

"Agree to disagree." Thor said and Loki shook his head. "So, that is why there is a lot of stabbing involved in our lives."

Shuri smiled a little and said in a nostalgic tone, "That reminds me of T'Challa and me when we were younger. We would practice whatever we were taught on each other. Once I broke his arm on accident and in retaliation, he broke my wrist. Mother always hated it when we did that."

"See, I told you it was normal." Brunn said to Bruce who looked pretty shocked.

"Nothing in that was remotely normal." Clint murmured.

"It is for us." Fandral said with a sigh as he thought about their childhood days and the one time he had accidently impaled Volstagg. That was a good story to tell.

"Yes, it is." Volstagg said and launched into a story of their initial training days. The Asgardians, all except Loki and Heimdall, continued to tell stories as everyone moved to the living room. Some stories were fun, others dangerous, but all of them so weird that the humans could hardly wrap their heads around it all. Even Rocket and Nebula seemed shocked at some of the things that the Asgardians had done over the years.

Loki continued to keep an eye out on Nebula even though he pretended to be busy with other things. Clint did the same thing but did not dial down on his hostility and every single time Loki was mentioned doing something in the stories, he would either glare at the person in question or make some remarks which were slowly but surely getting on Thor's nerves. He could understand why the archer hated his brother so and he knew that forcing him to stay with Loki was horrible to do, but he also knew that the Avengers gave a chance to others. If only they could give a chance to Loki to show them that he wasn't all that bad. That he had a good heart despite his actions.

"So," Clint said as he glared at Loki when there was a break in the endless storytelling, "you Asgardians seem to be fond of telling stories. Loki, why don't you tell us one and it better not be a tall tale."

"Loki doesn't usually…"

"Thor, please. What would you like to know?" Loki asked Clint and everyone tensed as the air became thicker with the underlying tension amongst the group.

"How about," Tony said before Clint could say anything, "you tell us how you are alive. Again. Thanos did kill you, right?"

Loki hummed under his breath and crossed his arms and legs in a defensive manner. "Yes, he did." He peaked a look at Thor and saw the worried look making a comeback. Loki's eyes went to the hidden silver chain and he took a deep breath. Might as well get over with the whole thing. He didn't want to relive any of it and he didn't want Thor to worry either.

"While you are at it, why don't you tell why you had the Tesseract with you in the first place?" Natasha asked with a raised brow.

"And when did you even take it?" Thor asked.

"When you sent me to resurrect Surtur." Loki answered easily. "The Tesseract was just lying there and it was better to take it than to leave it floating in space."

"It could have been destroyed with Ragnarok and we would have never gotten into this situation!" Brunn said in annoyance. Thor had filled her in on all the infinity stones. She had only ever heard stories about them and considered them to be a myth but to actually see what a few little stones could do… it was horrifying.

"Val, please," Loki said in a disappointed tone. He was the only one who refused to call her by her real name and had continuously called her 'Valkyrie' till she had gotten annoyed by the continuous reminder and threatened him. It was only then that he started to call her 'Val'. She still didn't understand why he wouldn't call her by her given name. It was annoying but she got used to it.

"Have some respect for yourself. I know that you are more intelligent than you seem." Loki tsked when she tried to interrupt and continued, "Think about it – do you really think that something that can alter life itself can actually be destroyed? No, no, no. None of the infinity stones can be destroyed permanently unless it is by their own power."

"Own power…" Steve muttered. "That was why Wanda was able to destroy the mind stone."

"Her powers came from the mind stone." Natasha said.

"What is that all about?" Loki asked and Tony told him to continue with his own story.

"Fine." Loki glared at Tony and said, "So, as I was saying, the stones cannot be destroyed which is why I took the space stone or the Tesseract as you all know it, from the vault when I was resurrecting the fire giant. We were anyway coming to Midgard. It was safer here."

"Safer? Here, on Terra?" Rocket asked. "No offence, but this planet doesn't look like much."

"It is not the planet, it is the entire realm that I am talking about." Loki turned to Thor and asked, "Did you never tell them what this realm meant?"

"It never came up and they didn't need to know."

"Didn't need to know what?" Clint asked. "If it is something related to our planet, then obviously we need to know."

"Midgard was the last realm to be formed and therefore the youngest." Thor said. "Our great-grandfather, Buri, laid a sort of protection on the realm to protect it from being taken over by other species. Over the years, when no life form developed here, it became a kind of safe place to keep our most precious artifacts. It was only when large life forms developed here, our grandfather, Bor, brought most of the artifacts back home and only a few like the Tesseract were left behind."

"The protection that was placed here is the only reason that Thanos did not attack you all before." Loki took over. "The protection still holds in place and only a native of the nine realms is allowed to enter Midgard. There is only one other thing that surpasses the protection and that is the space stone. You cannot stop the space stone from going anywhere, which was why it was kept here, on this planet."

"The only thing that can break the safe is inside the safe. Solid plan." Tony said.

"Precisely." Loki said with a smirk. "Which is why it was safe to bring it here. Unfortunately, Thanos was already on the edge of the protective line and he came across our ship over there. He also already had the power stone with him and the stones can track each other if one knows how to do it. He attacked us, took the Tesseract and killed Heimdall and me."

"And many other Asgardians." Brunn added.

"That too."

"Fine, so you have a good excuse for why you had the Tesseract. Now, how and why are you alive?" Clint asked.

"Well, that is a complicated story, but to simplify it, the celestials brought me back to return what is theirs – the stones."

"Celestials?" Rocket asked. "Like Ego?"

"What?" Scott asked in confusion. "I feel like there is a lot we are not being told."

"Ego?" Loki repeated. "Was he not the one that was killed by his own child?"

"Yeah, Quill. We killed Ego, blew up the entire planet. It was amazing." Rocket answered. He looked at the horrified looks of the humans and said, "Don't worry, the planet was Ego himself and he was the only one who even lived there."

"Why not!" Steve mumbled.

"Well, no one was upset over that." Fandral said.

"Hey, back to point. What is a celestial?" Scott asked.

"Race of immensely powerful beings." Brunn said. "But I thought they were all myths or had died a long time ago."

"You have got to be kidding me!" Loki muttered. "You lived alongside a celestial for so long and you thought they were myths? The Grandmaster! He is one of the elders."

"So, he's alive then?" Brunn asked with trepidation.

"Yes."

"Damn."

"You guys get distracted a lot. Who are these celestials?" Scott asked his question once again.

"Right." Loki nodded and explained about celestials, elders and cosmic beings in as simplified manner as he could.

"So, these cosmic dudes made the stupid infinity stones?" Tony asked. "And what do the so called elders have to do with this?"

"Yes, the cosmic beings made the stones for reasons unknown. They don't actually need the stones seeing that the stones are only a portion of their own abilities. It is pretty redundant actually, but they prefer it this way, so…" Loki shrugged. "As for the elders – they are not really interested in anything except their own gains. Only the Collector and Grandmaster are even involved in bringing the six of us to life because both have been scorned by Thanos. For the Collector, it is a matter of if he can't have the stones, no one else can either and for the Grandmaster, well, he is bored and wants to play a new game."

"I hate that guy." Brunn took a swing of the vodka in her hand. "Creepy, old fart."

"Yes, nobody likes him." Loki said.

"So, these super powerful people brought you back to life. Why?" Bruce asked. "Why you?"

"We asked the same question. The answer took hours." Sif said.

"It was barely an hour." Loki rolled his eyes. "As for your question Banner, they said it is because I can travel anywhere in the universe without outside help."

"That's thin."

"That's all they gave us."

"He is telling the truth." Heimdall said and turned to Loki. "They said that Loki could go anywhere in the universe unhindered and that would be useful to us."

"But I still do not understand why that would be required." Sif said. "Thor can use the Bifrost, so we no longer need Loki's way of travelling."

Loki sighed and said, "And how exactly would the stones reach them? The Bifrost cannot enter the Mid-Point. Nothing can."

"Except you." Thor said.

"When they want me to, yes." Loki answered smugly. This was the part he loved about having a unique power. No matter what, he would always be required – at least till the end of the mission.

"So, how do we get the stones?" Rocket asked.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Clint said. "We can't trust him."

"And yet you trust the daughter of Thanos." Loki said nonchalantly as he made a show of relaxing into his chair.

"Because she fought alongside us." Tony said.

"And I was killed by Thanos. Rest assured, I want to see him die as much as you all do."

"Please," Tony scoffed, "you worked with Thanos."

"So did she and for far longer than I did." Loki pointed out. "Please tell me you have a better argument than that."

"Yeah, well, she wasn't the one who attacked us and killed hundreds." Clint said vehemently.

"Hmm. No, she did not. But she did kill thousands on the various planets she visited alongside Thanos. Go on, tell them, Nebula. Tell them about your exploits. You know, I know them all." Loki sighed when Nebula said nothing. "You know the only difference here is that I attacked your planet and she didn't. That is why you would not trust me but would let her roam around your family, your children."

"What did you just say?" Clint asked in anger and fear and got up from his place. He looked at everyone else' shocked faces and then looked at Thor. "Did you tell him? Did you…"

"Please do not insult my intelligence, Barton." Loki interrupted as Clint bristled and glared at him. "I can feel their energies in the house."

Clint growled and turned his glare towards Tony, "See, this is why he shouldn't have been brought here. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just kill him."

"For one, you are not actually physically capable of doing something like that." Loki pointed out with feigned innocence.

"We'll see."

"Enough, Barton." Thor said and looked at Loki. "Please, brother, do not antagonize my friends any longer."

"I am not doing anything." Loki said innocently. "I'm just telling them what I know."

"Loki," Thor said in warning and Loki rolled his eyes and looked at everyone with a bored expression.

"No, Thor," Clint gritted out and scowled at Loki. "I gave you a chance with him, but look at him. He doesn't care. At least be sympathetic, you monster!"

"Barton!" Thor shouted and lightening ran around his fingertips as he shot up from his chair. Everyone tensed as a light bulb exploded in a corner. Loki's hand immediately shot up and pulled Thor down, but Thor refused to budge.

"Thor, that's quite enough." Loki said quietly. "Do not forget what they mean to you."

"Then they better not forget what you mean to me either." Thor spat out.

Loki stood up and said smoothly, "Excuse us." He dragged Thor out to the hallway and flicked his hand in the direction of the broken light bulb. The fixture flew back together and the light lit up again as the two exited from the room.

"He can't be here." Clint said determinedly as the brothers exited the room. "He knows! He knows our families are here. There is no way he is staying."

"Let me assure you," Heimdall said calmly, "Loki does not harm children. As a matter of fact he does not harm without reason."

"He still killed hundreds of people here." Steve argued.

"I never said that the reason can be perceived by others." Heimdall said. "I have known Loki from the day he was brought into Asgard as a newly born child of barely a few days. I have seen him grow up, seen him do both good and bad things. Each of these things always had an explanation behind them, whether they made any sense to anyone or not. The only time I have not understood his actions is the time between his fall and his return to Asgard. Might we give him a chance to explain himself?"

Volstagg cleared his throat and said, "Loki does a lot of things but he never harms children in any way. My own children adore him. Whenever we had our differences, it never affected his relationship with my children. If there are children here, Loki would not harm them. On the contrary, the only reason you would want Loki to be away from them is because he will teach them how to be more mischievous than normal."

"Oh, so now he is a stand-up guy, huh?" Clint said angrily.

"I do not understand what you mean."

Thor trudged into the room with Loki following right behind him. "I apologize for losing my cool back then." He mumbled to his friends as he and Loki took their places once again. Thor gave an apologetic look to Clint, who waved it off. Loki, on the other hand, looked pretty solemn.

"Okay, Rock of Ages, we have some questions for you." Tony said and looked at Clint. The archer understood what he meant and stopped pacing and took his own seat. Tony had told him that they will ask Loki about New York and Clint wondered how much truth would be there in what answers Loki gave them, if he gave any at all. He wondered if there was a lie detector lying around somewhere and if it would even work on the 'god of lies'.

"You may ask them but I have the discretion to whether I will answer them or not." Loki looked at Thor when the latter nudged him and signaled him to behave. Thor had told Loki that the mortals would definitely ask Loki about his attack on Midgard all those years ago and Loki was in no mood to answer them. It was one thing to come clean to Thor and another to do the same in front of not only complete strangers but also his tormentor.

"First of all," Tony said, "what's with the outfit? Whose funeral are you attending?"

"Excuse me?" Loki looked offended as he looked down at his clothes. What was everyone's problem with how he dressed? First Thor called him a witch and now this!

"I told you, you look like a witch." Thor said with a grin which grew bigger at Loki's annoyed expression.

"Tony, this is not the time to fashion police him." Steve said exasperatedly.

"Oh hey, Capsicle knows what a fashion police is!" Tony said in glee. "Fine! I'll get to the point."

"Why did you attack Earth?" Natasha asked before Tony could go off topic once again.

"To get the Tesseract. Next question."

"Nebula told us that you…"

"Oh did she now?" Loki glared at the alien in question. He turned back to Natasha and said, "Well, looks like you have your answers. What do you need me for?"

"Brother," Thor whispered to Loki as he clutched his brother's arm. The way Loki was acting, Thor had a feeling that he would leave in a few moments. He knew that Loki didn't want to talk about what had happened. He knew that just telling him the previous night had taken a lot of courage from Loki's side, but his friends too needed to know all this. They needed to know the real Loki. "Please, just tell them. Not for me or for them, but for yourself. You need to let it out in the open."

"Don't tell me what I need to do, Thor." Loki hissed back.

"Loki, would you really prefer them to think whatever they want of you rather than tell the truth? They would understand…"

"Thor, if there is anything that I do know for certain about your friends – all of them, is that they are self-righteous. For them, nothing is superior than their way. If anyone goes against their way of doing things, then that person is wrong. They will never accept someone else's judgement over theirs and that is why they will never truly understand."

"You guys do know that we are sitting right here and we can hear every word. Crystal clear." Tony said. "Just try us. Look, Cap and I have our differences but we all still work together, don't we? So, why don't you tell us the truth, the whole truth and nothing but and we will try to understand as much as possible."

Loki chuckled derisively and said, "You think you can set aside your prejudice against me?"

"No promises." Clint said and Loki smirked.


	19. Chapter 19

**(A/N - I know, I know. It's been far too long since I updated, but life happened and I could not find time to write even a sentence. Anyway, I'm back and here's the new chapter. This has Loki telling his story, but it ends on a small, tiny cliffhanger. Mostly cuz I wanted to update soon and the chapter would become too long otherwise. So, lemme know how you guys find it! :D )**

 ** _CHAPTER 19_**

Jim tore his eyes away from the giant screen in front of him and looked at the others. He was sitting with Pepper, May, Laura and Happy in a private den cum movie room that Tony had set up for himself and Pepper. The kids were in the arcade that was right next to the room. Why there was an arcade in a superhero's facility was beyond Jim but it was there and it was sweet!

"Does it ever get normal?" he asked the others. They had far more experience dealing with weird things on a day to day basis seeing as how two of them were married/engaged to superheroes and the other two were closely related. He still had difficulty sometimes grasping the fact that Scott could become as tiny as an ant and as huge as a skyscraper if he wanted to.

"What?" Pepper asked. "The aliens, magic and all that?" When Jim nodded, she just shrugged. "Normal, no, but you get used to it and more importantly you stop asking questions and looking for logic."

"What'd you make of him? Of Loki?" Laura asked Jim as she watched Loki smirk at Clint on the screen in front of them. She couldn't even imagine the amount of courage it must have taken for her husband to keep calm in front of the person who made him go through so much. "You are a cop. Any insights?"

"He is definitely hiding something but seeing that he is probably hundreds of years old, it is a given." Jim said as he focused on the alien in question. "Nebula told that he was tortured and all that. Now I haven't seen any torture victims, mainly because we find their bodies more often than not, but I have seen trauma victims of some sort or the other and I can say that Loki shows signs of it."

"Of trauma?" May asked. She hardly spoke to anyone but she was slowly starting to interact even if she still didn't want to come face to face with Tony.

"Of PTSD." Jim said. "We had this program a couple of years ago where I attended this psychology workshop. I learnt about it there. Plus, I know body language."

"It's in the way he sits, isn't it?" Pepper asked. Over the years, having lived with Tony and then learning about this sort of stuff from Sam, she had picked up on how to read psychological effects on a person's body language. It was also how she managed to know that Tony was going through something even before he knew of it.

"Yeah." Jim nodded. "He's stiff and defensive. He is nervous about something. He keeps rubbing his palm with his other hand. It's gotta be an involuntary reaction to his situation. He's also hypervigilant, the way he looks at something whenever there is a loud noise. He also doesn't talk much unless talked to. That's another thing I have seen in traumatized cops and people in general."

"Are you sure it was only a workshop that you attended?" Happy asked with a chuckle.

Jim smiled and said, "You learn these sort of things on the job and my partner had a psychology degree. He used to tell me this sort of stuff all the time."

"Must be a heck of a partner."

"He was." Jim cleared his throat. He did not want to think about his partner disintegrating into dust right in front of his eyes. He looked closely at Loki and said, "He is hesitant to talk about the whole New York episode. Look at the way he keeps stalling. He is also at a vantage position. From his position, he can see everyone at all times and I think one of the doors is also in his line of sight." Jim sighed and concluded, "I think Nebula told the truth or her version of it. The fact that Loki is not uncomfortable with himself, shows that he is used to being like this which probably means that he has been like this for quite some time."

"I think he is finally going to say something." Laura said and wondered whether any explanation about why her husband was targeted by Loki would be forthcoming or not.

"Any time today would be good, Loki." Tony said after moments had passed and Loki had not said a word.

Loki looked innocently at Tony and said, "Oh, I thought someone was going to ask something."

"We already asked a question." Steve said in irritation. Not that many could get under his skin but Loki was probably at the top of that list.

"And I already answered it."

"Why don't you tell us from what happened after… the whole Bifrost thing?" Sif asked softly. She knew it was a very sensitive topic for Thor and she wanted to be as considerate as possible but still get all the answers.

"What Bifrost thing?" Clint asked.

Thor looked up sharply at the archer and said curtly, "It is personal." He had never told anyone about what had really happened between him and Loki. He had only informed them that Loki had been missing for around a year after they had some disagreements. They didn't need to know more than that. They were his friends and this was a close family matter, not including his Asgardian friends and Heimdall, who had happened to arrive shortly after Loki had let go.

"Would it explain why Nebula kept mentioning that he was found in an almost dead condition?" Natasha asked, watching the brothers carefully for any signs of, well anything. She really didn't know what the problem was and it was obvious that Thor hadn't told them everything about his brother and him.

"Why don't you just get her to answer your queries? It seems like she has already done that." Loki said in annoyance.

"Would it?" Clint repeated venomously.

"It hardly matters," Loki said flippantly and then his tone turned taut, "but if you do need to know…"

"Loki, please." Thor begged as he curled his hands into fists. There would never be a situation where he would be okay with listening to anyone, let alone his brother, remind him of what had happened that fateful night. Over the years, he had kept it buried, but now it was all coming back.

Loki looked at his brother and dug his nails in his palm. He looked sharply at the others and said tonelessly, "I tried to kill myself. Obviously," he continued casually as Thor stiffened next to him and the Avengers looked at him in shock, "that did not work out. Shame, wouldn't you say?"

Brunn could barely keep the surprise off her face. Loki was a lot of things, but suicidal? He didn't strike her as someone who would take such drastic decisions. The guy seemed to love himself a lot. But regardless of her inhibitions about the second prince, she wordlessly passed him one of the bottles that she had squandered away the moment she had set her eyes on the bar. The sophisticated fool that he was, he in turn poured out a glass for himself and leisurely took a sip. A soundless sigh escaped him and she wondered whether the reason he disliked and jabbed at her chronic drinking was because he too was going down the same path.

"Why?" Clint asked before he could stop himself. A million questions buzzed in his head and he knew the instant the question left him that he shouldn't have asked it in the first place. Almost everyone on the team had had experience with self-hatred that often took violent turns and he knew better than anyone, not to ask something about such a personal topic, not unless the other person was forthcoming and Loki was just the opposite of that.

"That's personal." Loki said bitingly, taking care not to crush the glass in his hand with his tightening grip. He had never told the actual reasons, the depth of his hatred for who he was, for what his real skin represented, what his father's indifference did to him, to anyone. Not even his mother, who was the closest to him or Thor, who had been with him at every point in their lives, knew the truth of the matter. He knew they had their own speculations, their own views, but no one knew what the truth was and he would never, ever reveal it.

Tony kept his poker face on as he remembered those days when he could care less about what happened to him. He had been so disgusted by what he had let himself become that he became careless with his own life – something that he had never done before. He could have easily made Iron Man as an unmanned suit, but he had thrown himself into it completely. So, he could understand that Loki didn't want to talk about what had pushed him to take such a devastating step and now he understood why Thor seemed so adamant to forgive Loki of everything. It made sense. For Thor, he had lost his brother and then miraculously gotten him back, but his brother, the 'real Loki' that he kept searching for in his newly found brother, had died long ago. He had died when Loki had tried to take his own life, same as the old Tony had never made it out of Afghanistan.

"So, where was I?" Loki muttered flippantly, blatantly ignoring everyone's horrified looks. He did not want anyone to feel pity for him or anything of that sort. He didn't know why he had told about what had really happened that night. He didn't need to. He knew Thor would never say anything about that night – the oaf was in denial about that and probably would remain like that for their entire lives. So, why did he? Why did he say anything at all? He told himself that it was to taunt Thor, maybe rub it in his face. But he didn't derive pleasure from that anymore. That had been only for a little while, when Thor's pain meant Loki's happiness or rather, a company for his own pain. But not anymore. He didn't want to cause Thor unnecessary pain and yet by revealing the truth, he did just that. Sighing, Loki decided not to think about his actions – sometimes they didn't even make sense to him.

"Right, as I was saying," he continued, "I was falling through the void and then…"

"Void?" Shuri asked, her interest peaking at new territories. She was trying not to think about the fact that Loki had just told them about trying to take his life. It was horrifying to even think of it and it depressed her further than what she already felt. So, she concentrated on things that made her happy – knowledge. She knew a bit about what he could be talking about but to actually hear the accounts of someone who had gone through it – priceless. Even if the situation was horrible.

"Yes, as the name suggests, it is nothing," Loki's eyes unfocused as he thought about the nothingness that the void had been, "and yet it is everything. You see, it is the place that is absent of all concepts that we are aware of. There is no air, no gases, no time and no reality. It is nothing and yet it is larger than even the entire universe." As his dead tone reached his ears, he shook himself out of his memories and said in false cheer, "No one survives the void. An average Asgardian can survive in space for around two hours without any sort of life support. I fathomed that I could survive for maybe an hour more. Maybe a little more than that."

"Why?"

Loki leaned towards the teenager conspiringly and whispered loudly, "Because I am not an Asgardian." He leaned back with a grin, pleased with the theatrics and said with a shrug, "The cold would not harm me as much as it would a normal Asgardian."

"So, what are you?" Scott asked.

 _Monster_ , popped up in Loki's mind uninvited. Tall, blue colored bodies with curved horns and blood-red eyes, with monstrous black nails and weird, circular carvings/lines decorating the entire body, took over his imagination and he could only imagine what he would look like. He had never turned into one of them before, only let the call of the winter take over him, the last two times he had done something like that, but he never had himself turned into a jotunn. He wondered what he looked like, whether he was tall like his biological father or a runt like Odin had told him. He felt the itch to let loose build up inside him once again. It had been coming and going randomly ever since he found out the truth. Perhaps the monster in him needed to get out like the green monster in Banner did or perhaps he had some morbid fascination with his birth self. Whatever the case, he had never let it happen and he clamped on his desire before it could take a hold of him.

"Jotunn." He answered calmly and went back to telling his story before anyone could interrogate him about that. What would he say? That he didn't know what he really was like? No.

"So, yes, there I was, floating through the void, when I felt a slight tug and the next thing I know, I am being pulled in by the force." Loki paused to take a sip of whatever Midgardian beverage Val had handed him.

"Do you have to talk in circles? What was it?" Tony asked in annoyance. This story telling might end up taking the entire day if Loki was persistent on telling it cryptically.

"Sanctuary." Loki answered with a bitter laugh. He stared at the amber liquid shining in the sunlight and he was transported back to his days in captivity on the stupid rock, stuck inside an underground cave, where the only source of light was a tiny, yellow glowing ball. Him – in captivity! It was laughable. He had always had the uncanny ability to get out of any situation in front of him and when he needed that ability, it all but left him to suffer alone. Each day in that place had reminded him of something that his mother used to tell him when he had been younger – you will cry as much as you laugh. She had always told him that whenever he played some or the other mischief which was borderline harmful. She had tried to warm him and he had never listened.

Seeing Loki lost in his thoughts, Nebula explained about her former home. "Sanctuary is the Chitauri airspace. Thanos had set up the entire area as his command center. It was a difficult place to find and horrible to stay in, which suited the Chitauri because they don't need a lot to stay alive."

"But how did Lackey get there?" Brunn asked, reverting to the nickname she had assigned to Loki. It irritated him to no end but that was what he got for reminding her of her Valkyrie status at each opportunity. Although, now she could understand why he didn't like the nickname. It probably reminded him of the time he was actually a lackey for someone, or he just didn't like the insult. It was hard to tell with him.

"Sanctuary is on the edge of void on the other side of the universe." Loki replied casually, ignoring the annoying nickname. "And because the void has no gravity in there, even a small gravitational pull of something that far away was enough to pull me in."

"Anyway," Loki exhaled, "I landed on the Sanctuary, got found by The Other…" Loki frowned. He didn't remember what happened next. It wasn't like he was trying to remember it anyway, but to not know what had happened to him was frightening, in the least. Fortunately or unfortunately, he still wasn't decided on that, Nebula filled in the few blanks that he had.

"He brought you to Thanos. You were unconscious, so you would not remember this all." Nebula intoned as she remembered what Gamora had told her. Gamora had been there, reporting on some mission completion when Loki had been brought in and she had immediately told her sister of the new visitor. "Then the Chitauri offered to eat you," Loki grimaced at that and quickly emptied his glass and refilled it with more alcohol. "Thanks to Maw, that didn't happen. He could tell that you had some sort of power and they wanted to test the extent of it before they decided what to do with you." Nebula continued like she wasn't retelling some horrible past.

Thor cracked his knuckles and a few tendrils of lightening covered his hands. He couldn't even start to grasp what Loki must have gone through. The little torture that he had underwent under Thanos, thanks to the power stone, had been enough to shake him to the core. Loki must have endured more than that. Perhaps that was why he had easily agreed to give up the stone to the titan. The two of them had more pain tolerance than that, Thor knew that, but Loki had broken the second Thor had been hurt by Thanos. He could remember that now.

"I do not think," Hogun said quietly but his voice cut through the heavy silence in the room, "that there is any sort of test to check what a person's seiðr can do."

"Yes, I do not know of any such tests." Wong said, surprising a few of them. They had completely forgotten that he had dropped in soon after breakfast to tell them that he could not find any sort of spell or item to constrain Loki's magic. Anything that they had, could probably be broken through by Loki. Wong still had no idea how Strange had been able to keep Loki captured for quite some time. It seemed impossible and it was unlikely that he took help of the time stone to achieve something like that. And it was even more unlikely that Strange had known a spell that Wong didn't. After all, Wong had taught him almost everything that Strange knew and being the librarian, he also knew of most of the available spells.

"Normally, there is no such test. Nothing conclusive in any case." Loki said, nodding at the elusive sorcerer. He liked this one better than the red caped one. That one had been an overconfident imbecile, not to mention, he had made Loki relive falling through darkness all over again. If he wasn't dead, Loki would have offered to kill him. "But Ebony Maw does not need any spells to find such things out. He can just tap into your memories and find out everything about you and he is the…"

"Was." Nebula corrected gladly.

"Was," Loki bit back a smile, "the foremost expert in dark practices."

"Better than you, you mean." Sif pointed out.

"I don't dabble in dark arts. They are forbidden for a reason, Lady Sif." Loki corrected.

"But you do know them."

"Of course, I know them. What sort of an idiot would not want to know everything about their field of expertise?" Loki scoffed. "But one should know when and where to stop."

"Oh and you know that?" Clint challenged. "So, mind controlling someone isn't forbidden then, huh?"

Loki looked almost sympathetically at the Avenger and said, "It is forbidden, but if it makes you feel better, I was not the one who controlled you, it was the Mind Stone. I was just the caretaker of the stone."

"How can that possibly make anyone feel better?" Clint rolled his eyes and glared at Tony for allowing the monster to roam free. Tony sighed and ordered, "Let's get back on track. Squidward didn't let you die. Then what?"

"I suppose I was locked up and asked questions? I do not really remember the initial days." Loki said like it was no big deal but the slightly shaking hands and the quickly depleting bottle of alcohol betrayed his true feelings. Tony could almost feel bad for the guy. If he had to retell his days in Afghanistan, he would break his recent sobriety streak in a jiffy.

"Well, you were not in a state to answer any questions." Nebula pointed out. "You were kind of nursed back to proper health and then asked questions. When you were not forthcoming with anything other than insults…"

"Oh, yes, that was hilarious." Loki chuckled darkly and maintained a cheery attitude when Thor clasped his arm in what the oaf considered comfort. Loki felt it to be a chain binding him to the current situation. Oh, what he wouldn't do to just leave and never return! But Thor. It always came back to his golden brother. Loki could not just seem to leave the idiot behind.

Ignoring Thor's concerned look, the younger prince continued, "And that was when you came in, is it not, Nebula?"

The Luphomoid frowned at Loki in confusion and said, "No, the Black Order was not called until later." Everyone's attention was drawn to an annoyed Loki and Thor asked, "Brother, do you not remember the events that took place?"

Loki balanced his glass on his knee and rubbed his left palm with his right hand. Memories bombarded him as he dug his fingernails, drawing a little blood. Flashes of the Chitauri soldiers standing above him, of Maw talking to him, of Thanos staring at him in mild curiosity, of the two assassin-sisters standing guard at the door while Maw prodded his mind, him screaming in agony… they were all jumbled up. He didn't know when what happened. All he knew was that it happened. He could feel his heart rate increase and the familiar itch to run away was making a comeback.

"Loki?" Thor said softly, leaning towards his brother while keeping his hand on Loki's shivering arm.

"Hmm." Loki jerked back at the close proximity of his older brother and discreetly looked around. He was with the Avengers and Thor's minions. He carefully avoided looking at Nebula. He was sure that he would end up killing her if she drew his attention at the moment.

"I asked if you do not remember the events that took place." Thor whispered to Loki. He could tell that Loki was spooked, but he also knew that the Avengers would want to know all the details at the earliest and the sooner Loki got it over with, the sooner he could take his brother to the safe confines of their room. That is, if Loki didn't disappear before that.

"Huh?" Loki seemed confused and then understanding dawned on his face and his momentarily vulnerable expression changed back to his poker face. "Of course, I remember what happened. I was there, wasn't I?"

"But you don't remember the order of the events." Steve spoke up. He remembered that even Bucky had seemed confused about the order of things, but he always remembered the details. The same seemed to be the case with Loki.

"It happened years ago." Loki made an excuse and did away the weak alcohol for a Sakaarian drink that he had 'borrowed' from the Grandmaster. He was glad that none of the Asgardians reminded him that it was not even a decade ago and that they, especially him, had a very good memory. Small mercies, he supposed.

None of the Avengers were satisfied with the excuse and they realized that a lot must have happened for Loki to not remember the chronological order of events. Even Clint simmered down at the haunted look in his opponent's eyes. There were somethings that could not be faked and involuntary body language was one of them. He wasn't happy with how the things were currently and he wasn't jumping on the 'benefit of doubt' bandwagon, but he could at least listen to what Loki had to say.

"Right! So, umm," Loki continued, wincing at the too strong liquor burning his throat, "where were we? Being questioned, yes." He took a deep breath and tried to get his thoughts in line. "So, I insulted them and I suppose they did not like it, so they got… innovative." Loki muttered under his breath, "I doubt that worked either."

"Anyway, it is neither important nor entertaining." Loki remarked. "Later on, the Black Order, famously known as the Children of Thanos were brought in. That was when I met the lovely Nebula and her charming sister." Loki said sarcastically and smirked at Nebula. He sized up the blue assassin and said thoughtfully, "They were… effective, but not quite satisfactory. Did I get that right?"

Nebula shrugged, feeling quite unnerved by being the sole subject of Thor's hardened stare. She had never seen him angry and now she could say confidently that she didn't want to deal with a pissed off Thor. The other Asgardians were also looking at her, even if it wasn't with the same level of animosity as Thor.

"Then came Ebony Maw along with The Other." Loki suppressed a shudder. The mere mention of the evil being could drive him to want to hide. Thankfully, he was dead. Loki needed to thank the person who killed Maw. He really did. "They were _very effective_." Loki continued, gathering strength that he didn't know he had. He really did not want to go deep into what had happened with Maw. Those memories still gave him nightmares.

"You missed out Proxima and Glaive." Nebula pointed out. "They came before Maw did."

"Hmm." The younger prince frowned. He thought they came at the end. Well, whatever. He looked at the barely concealed horror on the humans' faces and took pleasure in their discomfort. Serves them right for making him relive that horrible time in his life. "They were not important." He said, thinking about the terror that Proxima and Glaive had been. They had been good, too good even and if he had not been the stubborn ox that he was, he would have cracked within a day of getting acquainted with those two.

"Then what happened?" Shuri asked in a whisper when Loki had gotten lost in his head once again.

Loki shook his head and took in the scared look on the child's face and sighed. "Maw figured out what I could do."

"Which is?" Steve asked.

"Let me complete!" Loki said exasperatedly and rolled his eyes in annoyance. "As I was saying, Maw saw, in my memories, what I could do, which is," he said pointedly, "travel the entire universe without external help. That means I do not need a portal or a spaceship or anything of any sort to be able to travel across the universe. It was useful to them."

"How?" Wong asked curiously. He had never heard or read about anything of that sort. The closest he could think of was astral projections but even those could not be done across universe. Plus, it seemed that Loki was talking about actual travel rather than sending his conscience somewhere else.

Loki gave as brief a recap as he could of this particular ability and did not bother to explain further questions. He did not want anyone else figuring it out, not that the two-bit sorcerer could even achieve something like that. Such methods were only available to those with natural seiðr like himself and not someone who utilized the seiðr around them, like those sorcerers.

"Moving on," Loki continued, "this method was important to Thanos. You see, he had found out that the space stone was on Midgard, but with the protective line, he could not reach the stone. For years he had been trying to get Marauders under his control, but even to reach them, would alert the Allfather to his presence. So, that too was out of question."

"Marauders?" Natasha questioned.

"A group of invaders that attacked the Nine Realms." Thor answered stiffly. "They were formally formed once the Bifrost was broken after Loki and I fought on it, but they had been present under different factions far before that. They had been trying to invade and loot the realms for years but we were too strong for them."

"Once the Bifrost broke," Fandral explained further, "it was far easier for them to attack the lesser protected realms because none of us could provide additional protection if required."

"So, Thanos could not get to the Marauders." Loki said hastily before someone could deviate from the topic. The tale was coming to an end and so was his patience. "You see some of the Marauders were from within the Nine. They could easily enter Midgard. The process of approaching them was too slow for Thanos and the Tesseract had already been discovered by you lot. He was running out of time and I came in at a crucial time for him. All he needed to do was make sure that I did his bidding and brought the stone to him."

"Except," Nebula smirked, "you were the least cooperative person I have ever seen, even after all the 'persuading'."

Loki said smugly, "I don't take orders. I give them." A smile formed on his tense face as the other Asgardians agreed and Val shook her head at him and mumbled, "Typical Odinson," under her breath.

"So, what are you trying to say?" Bruce asked. "What you did, you attacking Earth – those were not your actions?"

"Don't put words in his mouth." Clint mumbled.

"I didn't say that." Loki told Bruce.

"So, you attacked Midgard because you wanted to?" Thor asked, a hopeful gleam in his eyes, hoping against hope that Loki would deny it all.

This was it, thought Loki. This was the moment that he could accept it and become their villain once again, condemned to being hated for his lifetime and beyond, if anyone could remember the events that far. Or he could deny and tell his truth or what he perceived as the truth and maybe, just maybe, someone might be able to see beyond his madness and look at the brilliant gamble he took with his own life and with the life of perhaps millions on Midgard. It was up to him and he could feel the acceptance on the tip of his tongue.


	20. Chapter 20

**(A/N - Hey guys! Here's the part 2 of Loki's explanation about his attack. Hopefully, it makes as much sense to you all as it does to me. :D**

 **Also, I just watched Captain Marvel and I am in love with her character. A much needed happy movie before Endgame. But now I am confused. Do I add her to this story or just let it be? Let me know what you all think about this.**

 **Before you continue with the reading, thanks a lot to all of you for your comments and favoriting and following the story. And thank you Tronin for letting me know about the repetitions. I usually try to avoid them as much as possible but sometimes I just miss it out. Oh well, I'll keep it in mind. :) )**

 ** _CHAPTER 20_**

"I didn't say that either."

Thor released the breath he didn't know he had been holding. It was a relief that Loki had not wanted to attack Midgard. Or did he? He may not have said that he wanted to attack Midgard but neither did he say that he did not want to the attack the youngest realm. Thor suppressed his groan. Why was his brother so difficult to understand? Why could they not go back to being kids when they both said what they meant and didn't find the need to hide behind twisted words?

"I'm confused now." Scott grumbled. "Either you attacked us of your own accord or you didn't. Which one was it?"

"There are never just two sides to a situation." Loki sighed at Heimdall's wise words. The all seeing gatekeeper had to interfere with his stupid wisdom, didn't he? Ignoring Loki's frown, Heimdall continued to address the heroes. "All of you are only seeing the situation with a view to mark Loki as a villain or a victim. But things are not as simple as that."

"Heimdall," Loki warned but the gatekeeper paid him no heed.

"Have you in all this time considered if he was a bit of both?"

"Seems simple enough." Rocket said. "He was tortured, so he is a victim and because of that he attacked Terra, so he is a villain. Are we done here then?"

"No," Clint barked, "it is not as simple as that. What he did… you don't know what he did, okay? He killed hundreds…"

"Technically, it was the Chitauri army in the city and the Avengers fighting the Hulk on that flying ship. I was only the instigator." Loki interrupted and shrugged as everyone turned to glare at him at once.

"He mind-controlled so many people. Most of them are dead now and some have gone crazy, lost their minds. Loki destroyed lives. So, you see Rocket, it is not that simple."

"Technically, it was the mind sto…"

"Shut up!" Clint growled at Loki.

"Brother, Barton is right." Thor said and looked at Loki. "My friend, Selvig, he lost his mind. He would run around, talking about some or the other phenomena and the convergence and would mostly refuse to wear pants."

Loki stared at Thor for a while and then chuckled. "He had not lost his mind, Thor, he expanded it. The space stone showed him the beauty and vastness of the entire space. The Midgardians would find it beyond them and hence would declare him crazy. All because they had no proof of such things. Had they not declared life outside of their planet, impossible, before your exile? This is what they do." Loki relaxed in his spot and added, "As for the absence of proper garments, I am afraid I have nothing to do with that. That must have been his choice completely."

"This is all a joke to you, isn't it?" Steve gritted out. "You have no remorse, nothing, for the people who died all because of you!"

Loki raised an eyebrow at Steve and asked, "You are a soldier, are you not, Captain?"

"What does that have to do with anything? We are talking about you, not Steve." Natasha spoke.

Loki paid her no attention and asked Steve, "Do you not feel remorse, regret or whatnot for the people you killed?"

"Of course I feel bad for having to kill people." Steve growled. "But I couldn't do anything else. It was war."

"Exactly." Loki said quietly. They could see the otherworldly quality in him as all emotions fled from his face till a mask of peace settled on him. It made the others nervous and all of them itched for their weapons. The only ones who didn't seem disturbed by the sudden change were the Asgardians, barring Brunn. They had all seen this side of Loki, had lived with this version of Loki for far too long to be affected by it.

"So was this." Loki continued softly. "You may not be able to see the bigger picture, but I can and I could do that even under influence."

"You call this war?" Thor felt his anger rising at his brother's indifference. "The invasion? That was war, brother?"

"Against whom?" Bruce asked calmly, not that getting angry would bring the other guy out. The Hulk was determined to take a vacation at this crucial time.

Loki smirked and answered, "Against Thanos, of course." He sipped he strong liquor and could feel it ease his worries away as it meddled with his system. He should stop soon what with the Sakaarian liquor being way stronger than what he was used to. He always stopped right before the alcohol could screw up his thinking. He always needed to stay sharp. It was his one trustworthy weapon. His brain. It never abandoned him and he would never harm it, not willingly at least.

Incredulity colored everyone's face at Loki's answer and Tony scoffed, "Let me refresh your memory, in case you don't remember, you were fighting us, not Thanos."

"Wasn't I?"

"Spit it out, Loki." Natasha ordered in annoyance.

Loki smiled at her as if he just realized that she too was in the same room and exclaimed, "Ah, the assassin with red on her ledger! Now, let me think, what Barton told me. Ah, yes! You met your archer when you were trying to escape the organization that turned you into an assassin. Am I right? How did you go about that?"

"What does Natasha have to do with you?" Clint glared at Loki and cursed himself for telling their enemy everything about the team. Bastard had used it and was still using it to his advantage.

"Tell me," Loki smirked as realization dawned on the assassin in question, "did you leave abruptly or…"

"You can't do that or else they will find and kill you…"

"Nat, don't tell him anything." Clint interrupted his friend.

"I already know it all." Loki mumbled and encouraged Natasha to speak up.

"You make mistakes." Natasha declared with a frown as she thought about her old plan. "You make small mistakes that can be made by anyone, even the best and… and you target those who know your moves…" Loki smiled as she continued, "and you hope that someone can see the discrepancies." Natasha sighed and admitted, "That's what I did. I knew SHIELD was tracking me down and I knew that they knew my MO. All I had to do was make a few mistakes here and there and hope that someone noticed it."

"That sounds like a bad gamble." Scott observed.

"It was, but I was desperate and I got lucky." The Russian said and looked at Clint with gratitude. "I had Coulson and Clint chasing me and Clint figured out what I was doing. He refused to kill me and the rest is history." She turned again to look at Loki and said, "Your turn."

"Wait!" Clint looked at Natasha in confusion and said, "You think Loki did the same things as you? Don't sully your name by comparing yourself to him."

"Barton…" Thor said in warning. He had had enough of Clint demeaning Loki. He could understand Clint's issue but the archer should at least hear the entire story before pointing fingers. As far as he was concerned, what Loki did, however bad it was, his death was punishment enough. Although it would be better if Loki at least felt some remorse for his actions.

"We were correct." Sif whispered as dots joined suddenly and she looked at Loki in a new light.

"About what?" Thor asked, sufficiently distracted.

"About Loki's attack on Midgard." Hogun answered as Loki looked at the Warriors Three and Sif in a mix of annoyance and admiration.

"Think about it," Sif said as she saw Loki lean back in his place, watching everything unfold in front of him and everyone else gave her their complete attention, "you know Loki better than all of us combined." Thor nodded. "Then tell me, did you not find his methods for attacking Midgard to be lacking?"

"Lacking?" Tony asked. "In what? Finesse?"

"No," Hogun sighed, "you would not understand unless you have seen Loki plan and fight wars. We have. For centuries."

Loki scoffed and said, "And it still took you all about a decade to figure things out and I am still not sure whether you have really figured it out correctly." He looked sharply at Thor and said, "Not you. You are an idiot."

Before the Avengers could express their discontent over the lack of forthcoming answers, Sif explained, "You see, Loki does nothing without a plan. He once spent an entire weekend planning backup plans after backup plans for a war."

"And we never had to use even one of them." Volstagg expressed his displeasure. "The original plan was good enough for us to win."

"Which, for your information, was formulated by me." Loki reminded them.

"I have seen the footage of the attacks when I visited Midgard last." Sif admitted. "And I do not find the same level of planning and care in those attacks as I have gotten used to seeing over the years. It more or less felt like one of our haphazardly formed plans which went sideways a few minutes into the fighting." Sif smiled fondly and said, "And I know what I am talking about. We have been in that situation way too many times."

"Loki," Thor looked at the blank look on Loki's face, "for once, please, could you tell us everything? No double meanings, no room for speculation. Just be clear for once, brother. Tell us what happened."

Loki sneered at Thor and grumbled, "It was a simple plan but you…" He abruptly stood up from the couch and shoved Thor's extended arm away from him. Pacing angrily, he muttered, "No! The fault was all mine. I overestimated all of your combined intelligence!" He controlled his ever building anger and clenched his fists, his glass of liquor long forgotten on the arm rest of the couch.

"Do you" he turned to glare at Thor, "have any idea about the amount of danger I put myself in? And you still could not be bothered…" Loki exhaled and counted down from a hundred, trying to take his mind off the pent up anger. It was of no use, so he reverted to burying everything deep inside of him and soon enough, his facial muscles relaxed and he leaned against the nearby island table in a show of nonchalance.

The room was eerily silent as everyone tried to digest the unusual outburst from the always composed Loki. Hell, even after he had been bashed up by Hulk, he had still calmly asked for a drink. It was unnerving for the humans to see this side of Loki. Even Brunn had been shocked at the emotional fit from Loki. Only his brother and his childhood friends seemed unaffected. They were, after all, used to such random explosions from the second prince.

It was Loki's calm voice that broke the silence. "It was an easy task. Any fool could do it." Fixating his gaze on the opposite wall and ignoring everything else in the room, he continued to tell his tale. "Ever since Maw discovered what I was able to do, he and the others started convincing me to work for them. They thought it would be easy to convert me. I was betrayed by my own people," he spared a look at the warriors he had known since forever, "and I had no reason to return to such a place where I was unwanted."

"That is not true!" Thor yelled vehemently. When would his brother get it in his head that no one hated him – not more than he hated himself anyway?

Loki looked calmly at Thor and said to pacify his agitated brother, "Perhaps. But back then, I had just tried to end my life. Do you really think that I was in my right mind?" He sighed and continued, "So, because of all that, Maw thought that it would be easy to get me to sympathize with them. But I had lost my will to live, not my morals. I didn't know what the Tesseract really was, but if Thanos was so eager to have it, then I could not let him near it. So, I refused. Over and over again, till they had no other choice left."

"What choice?" Thor croaked. It hurt him to hear the desolate tone in which Loki was speaking, as if he still had no will to live. He wanted to shake his brother but he knew that Loki would kill him if he ever tried that in front of an audience.

"To change my morals." Loki said casually. "There is no other foolproof way to convince someone who is unafraid of death."

"You can't change morals." Bruce said with conviction.

"Can't you?" Loki smiled. "Morals are, simply put, your perceptions to right and wrong. They can be easily swayed once you confuse someone enough."

"Meaning?"

"Change a few memories, take away the meaning of self, things like that." Loki recited. "Once the person is confused as to who he is, what his standing in society is, he will slowly start doubting what is right and what is wrong. That was Maw's specialty and it was made easier by the mind stone." Loki looked at Clint, who was doing his level best to not show how freaked out he was and assured him, "Do not worry, archer, I did no such thing to you. You were directly controlled by the mind stone. That alone does not alter your sense of self."

Clint sighed in relief and muttered, "Can't believe I'm taking assurance from _him_."

"What did this Maw do to you, brother?"

Loki could feel the anger in Thor's question. He decided to keep calm. Thor often mirrored his feelings, like he often mirrored Thor's. It just depended on the situation. "Nothing that I have not already started to mend on my own, brother."

"You are still mending the damage?" Sif asked. "But you heal faster because of your seiðr."

Loki rolled his eyes and asked, "Have you ever broken a vase and then tried to fix it by hand? Tried to piece together every small, broken piece? It would take days to finish it and that is if you have the patience required to complete such a delicate task. Mending the mind is like that, only far more complicated. One mistake can be disastrous. And it is tiring, especially when that is not the only way I use my seiðr."

"Are you…? Even now…?" Sif asked, looking as if she was trying to see inside Loki's head.

"No." Loki answered curtly, not liking the sudden interest in his wellbeing.

"Why did you not approach Eir for this matter? She would have been able to…" Thor trailed off as he saw Loki's raised eyebrow. He knew what his brother was asking. When exactly would he have done that and that too without raising suspicion? "Umm… Eir is on Vanaheimr."

"I know. I sent her there." Loki replied and shook his head. "Leave it, Thor. We can discuss this later."

"So," Tony drawled, "I suppose Squidward was able to change your morals? Then what?" The whole talk of changing someone so much that they change their views on right and wrong was harrowing, especially when the Avengers were already at odds regarding the pros and cons of the Accords.

"He was able to change a few of my memories." Loki corrected. He looked at Thor and said softly, "Some very important memories." Looking away, he cleared his throat and for the first time, forced himself to think about those horrible days in detail. Every memory left the bitter aftertaste of anger and betrayal in his mouth. "You see, I was angry with Thor and Odin before this whole incident took place and the changes…"

"Why?" Bruce asked suddenly, unable to understand how anyone could get angry with Thor for anything. He was one of the purest souls Bruce had ever seen.

"…and the changes," Loki continued pointedly and Banner looked sheepish at his rude and intruding query, "in the memory targeted that anger and hatred till all I could think of were the different ways to hurt Thor, not that I already wasn't thinking of hurting Odin and Thor. Then they reminded me about the Tesseract. It was a simple job. As I said earlier, even a fool could accomplish it. They had the exact location of the Tesseract and with my power, I could get in there without alerting anyone, steal the Tesseract and leave an illusion in its place. Once I would be gone, no one would be able to find it again. You Midgardians have still not achieved inter-galactic travel and still cannot grasp the power or even the concept of 'magic'. It was too easy, like taking a toy from a child."

"Then why didn't you? Why did you lead an invasion when you could have taken the Tesseract without anyone coming to know of it?" Scott asked.

"There are many reasons but if I am being honest and I am being, for the moment," Loki assured them with a smirk, "it was not just _big_ enough."

"Big?"

"Not spectacular, not worthy of my return."

"Maybe you should have gotten a giant spaceship and a lot of smoke to conceal it." Brunn said in an amused tone and the Revengers shared an amused glance among themselves.

"So, let me get this straight," Clint rubbed his forehead anxiously, "you started an invasion because of the dramatic flair it had?"

"That was only a fleeting thought." Loki shrugged while the humans rolled their eyes and Rocket tried to control his laughter.

"How fleeting?" Thor asked with a raised brow. Loki's fleeting thoughts sometimes panned out for months.

"Dungeons." Loki replied flippantly and Thor burst out in laughter and covered his mouth to control himself. Once Thor had regained some control, Loki spared him a genuine smile and carried on, "Anyway, there were other reasons too. That just happened to be the first one to cross my mind."

"So what other superficial reason did you have?" Shuri asked.

"Trust me that was the only superficial reason I had." Loki frowned and added, "I think." He sighed and said, "But the real reason was that despite the changes to my memory, I knew that if the Tesseract was kept hidden by our forefathers on Midgard, then… then it should be returned to Asgard for safekeeping. All I knew was that under no circumstance should Thanos get hold of the Tesseract. Obviously, I had no clue how to proceed from that line of thought, so I stalled for time. I pretended to not have learned much of fighting techniques and well, Thanos would not have anyone going out in the field without proper training. That took almost six months and by the end of it I had a faint idea of what I had to do."

"So, you are trying to say that you had noble reasons for attacking us?" Natasha asked skeptically.

"Not really. This thought was present only in the background, maybe in my subconscious. This was what made me stall for time. I was only made aware of this thought when I was in the dungeons of Asgard. Solitary confinement gives one a lot of time to think and be left with their thoughts." Loki frowned as he thought back to those terrible days, where the holographic messages from his mother had been the only thing keeping him sane. He had been on the verge of losing himself in his illusions when she had first contacted him and then had continued to do so, despite the danger it put her in.

"During my time spent under Thanos, all I was aware of was that he was dangerous and that I had to find a way to hurt Odin and Thor as much as possible. When they told me of the Tesseract, my self-preservation kicked in and I decided to try and make my escape. Except, as the lovely assassin already informed us, to escape from such people, rash actions are not recommended."

"And an invasion is not rash?" Bruce asked.

"For my escape? Not at all. It was only a smokescreen." Loki grinned smugly, proud at his own ingenious plan.

"One that landed you in dungeons, sentenced to solitary confinement for your entire lifetime." Thor said drily.

Loki shrugged and waved his hand nonchalantly. "I would have escaped eventually. You just happened to hand me an opportunity before I had planned something concreate."

"Your fake death was all…" Thor gritted out, his anger at his brother's lie resurfacing.

"You should have stayed for an hour longer." Loki interrupted before he could be accused of cheating his brother yet again. His death had been real, but he had managed to survive, albeit barely. He said bitterly, "You could have witnessed me coming back to life. It could have been entertaining. For you. Not for me. Stitching a giant hole in your chest is bound to be painful."

Thor scowled at his brother and muttered, "That was an illusion, was it not?"

"An illusion is just that – it cannot be touched lest it disappears." Loki reminded softly, watching with a sense of perverse satisfaction as the horror became apparent on Thor's face. Maybe he still wasn't over the whole 'hurting Thor' thing yet. Well, somethings took time.

"Then how?"

"It is not important." Loki said firmly as Thor seemed to be lost for words. "What is important to you all is why I attacked Midgard and what my intentions behind it were." When the Avengers nodded, he explained, "In the little time I spent with Thor after his two day exile to Midgard, I saw that he loved this helpless little planet. So, harming it would cause him pain and it would bruise his monumental ego if I was the one doing the harm – his younger, weaker and supposed-to-be-dead brother." As Thor opened his mouth to protest, Loki carried on, "That was the first thought that I had when I heard of Midgard. It was followed by the fact that Thanos was beyond dangerous and if he wanted something so bad, it had to be kept away from him. That was when I decided to make sure that I keep the Tesseract away from his reach for as long as possible. With the protective line in place, I was the only one who could get in and it would be easy to keep them in the dark. Or so I thought."

Loki paused and summoned his hitherto forgotten drink. He took a deliberately slow slip and tried to get his thoughts in order while keeping his emotions in check. A mark of a great storyteller was the ability to get into the emotions of the story, but for the first time, Loki was trying to abandon that trait of his. He was vaguely aware of Nebula saying something about how The Other was able to create a connection with him and keep an eye on him at all times through the connection that was not bound by distance, having been created by the mind stone itself.

"Unfortunately for me, using the mind stone, a bond was created between myself and The Other, through which he could listen and maybe even watch all my actions. Thankfully, I was made aware of this fact as soon as the bond was formed. Perhaps they thought that it would weaken any resolve to fight against them. That just showed that they didn't know me very well, despite having seen my memories. The more you tell me not to do something, the more I am tempted to do it. The higher the stakes, the better."

"I think you might have a gambling problem." Rhodey pointed out.

Loki said with a smirk, "It is not a problem if I win each time."

"Still a problem."

"I realized that they didn't know me, they only knew about me, so I guessed that they probably didn't know the accuracy of my travelling methods. So I took a chance and told them that I could get close to the Tesseract but would need to use the locals to actually get it."

"That worked?" Nebula asked with a frown.

"Loki can talk his way in and out of anything," Hogun offered.

"Sort of." Loki replied and wondered how much the warriors knew about him. "They didn't question my plan, but Thanos had the brilliant idea of teaching me how to use the mind stone to control others. That was not part of the plan, although now that I think of it, it was better this way."

"Better this way?" Clint repeated. "It was better that you controlled others and made them do what you wanted them to do? That you took away their freedom?"

"Yes, better, because at least it took away the mind stone from Thanos." Loki sighed in exasperation and looked at the angered humans in pity. "None of you can still see the bigger picture. You all are stuck in your own world where you are right and everyone else is wrong. I suggest you get out of it before it destroys everything you hold dear like it did to me."

He looked Clint in the eye and asked, "Is it not better to let a few suffer to ensure the safety of the entire universe?" Pushing himself away from the island counter that he was leaning against, Loki made his way to the bar and told Tony, "You owe me a drink, I'm taking it now." He left the Avengers to ponder on his question as he picked out a bottle, but ultimately left it in favor of soda. He could feel his brain becoming slower and he could not afford that – not now, not ever.

"Hundreds died, Loki and many more lost their loved ones. That is a few to you?" Bruce asked in horror.

"When compared to the entirety of the Nine? Obviously." Loki walked back and perched on the island counter once again. "Ask your soldier leader." Loki nodded to Steve. "In a war, a few die to save others."

"This was not war. This was slaughter. You brought an advanced species to a planet barely able to stand on its own and expected them to fight in your war?" Brunn said plainly.

"My war?" Loki asked. "It was never just my war. Thanos slaughters people without blinking an eye. If he managed to reach the Nine, even Odin would not have been able to hold him off forever. He already had a stone with him and with that he could influence millions with a single surge. So, you see what I did? I brought the war here on my terms rather than his terms. I gave Asgard someone they could fight, someone who would not put up a great fight against them and all they had to do was try to find out what happened in the one year I had disappeared. Of course, Odin could not be bothered about such things and Thor had made himself scarce."

"You could have told mother. She was the only one visiting you…"

"Thor, she already knew. She had known it long before I made an appearance on Midgard."

"She… knew?"

"Yes, she even visited me in captivity, but by then The Other had already used the mind stone on me and if I let her talk to me, they would know. So I made sure that she could no longer contact me."

"If… if she knew, then why didn't she…"

Loki looked at Thor as if he was a child, unable to grasp the harsh realities of the world. "You don't think she tried to tell Odin? Now I do not know what happened between them – she would not tell me, lest I hate Odin more than I already do. But I can guess. He either dismissed her visions and thoughts as over imaginative thoughts of a distraught mother or he cut short his losses. Going up against Thanos, just to save me? That is not an option. Has never been. We have been taught this since we were mere children – Asgard before family." He added with a bitter smile, "and I am the son of the enemy, in any case. He did not spare his first born, do you really think he would have tried to save me?"

Loki went back to their original topic, caught between wanting Thor to face their father's reality and at the same time, wanting him to stay in his happy bubble. "You see, getting the Tesseract was only a side project for Thanos, his main focus were the other stones. Ask Nebula – she was one of those searching for the stones."

"Loki is right. The Tesseract and the soul stone were kept for the last. The power stone was the one he was really after because with that he could destroy planets without even lifting a finger."

"The power stone was the one he came with," Thor said, putting his turbulent thoughts about his family on hold for the time being. If he entered that particular black hole, he would never get out of it. The solemn face of Heimdall at Loki's dismissal of Odin's care for him, had made Thor rethink whether the Odin he knew and the Odin Loki knew, were two different people indeed.

"Exactly."

"So, you killed hundreds for the greater good?" Steve asked in anger. He had seen and fought many who considered themselves above all, who considered their cause noble, who didn't care for the body count – all in the name of the 'greater good'.

Loki spared the Captain a glance and said, "I had the vague ploy of using the locals to send a signal to Asgard and more importantly, to Thor. I did not even hide myself from Heimdall's vision. But most of my scheme was made right here, during the whole event, while it took place."

"You never do that." Fandral said with a frown.

"I had The Other and indirectly, Thanos, listening in on each thought and action at all times. The only way to ensure that they did not know of my real intentions was to think on my feet, make it up as it goes and not sleep – that would open up my subconscious to their prodding. I knew that before I came here and so I told them that they could take over the planet. They already knew of the importance of Midgard in the Nine. Its central location makes it so much easier to go to any realm from here. It didn't take much convincing from my side to get him to agree to send the Chitauri, which, back then was a majority of his force."

"But," Loki paused for a breath, "what they didn't know was how easy it was for Asgard to protect Midgard. I assumed with the Chitauri in play, Odin would be forced to break his silence and send the Einherjar…"

"That would require the use of Bifrost, which we did not have." Volstagg pointed out.

"Yes, that little detail had slipped my mind." Loki said with a shrug. "In any case, it was obvious that Thor would come. Neither he nor Odin would let go of such a golden opportunity to drag me home. He would have been enough for the Chitauri, I suppose. I was not aware of their existence." Loki waved his hand in the direction of the Avengers.

"So, I promised them an easy war and started influencing that scientist friend of Thor's, the one with an aversion to proper garments?"

"Selvig." Thor prompted.

"Yes, that one." Loki nodded at his brother. "I started influencing him, mostly because he was the one closest to the Tesseract and I needed someone on the inside to alert me of all the happenings."

"Well, Dr. Selvig was always in his own world. He wouldn't have noticed a bomb exploding in front of him." Natasha said wryly.

Loki rolled his eyes and said, "That was my mistake, but he was useful in the end."

"You had been controlling Selvig even before you came here?" Clint asked with a frown.

"Not controlling, only placing suggestive thoughts in his mind and pushing him in the right direction when needed." Loki corrected. "It was my luck that The Other could not listen in to anyone else's thoughts when I was controlling them. That made me plant ideas of building that hideous portal generator in the first place. It was ineffective at best and completely unnecessary, but no one other than I knew that little information. I told them that it was required to create a portal using the Tesseract, that Midgard did not have the apt technology to use it."

"So, all that running around in Germany was not needed?" Tony asked.

"Not at all. But it was fun, wouldn't you say?"

"No!"

"The Tesseract or rather, the space stone, does not need technology. It is sentient. It can operate on its own, all it needs is a location and it will rip the universe apart to reach that location if you want it to. The machinery was only a hindrance. It acted as a bottleneck, limiting the Chitauri to the location of my choice, allowing only a couple to pass at a time." Loki pondered on something and said, "That was part of my original thought process, the only part that was 'noble'. Otherwise, I was focusing on hurting…"

"Thor." Everyone said in unison. "We know! You hate Thor." Loki shrugged at that, not wanting to change that perception, although Thor already knew the truth. Sort of.

"I had to focus on it," Loki said with a frown, unconsciously trying to clear his name from the false accusation of hating his brother. "The hatred covered up any inkling of plans from them, but it also fueled my anger, because of which I was unable to separate my thoughts from theirs. Otherwise, perhaps the death toll would not have been this high. Trust me, I did try to minimize it, but somewhere in the middle of the whole thing, I just lost interest in it."

"When exactly did you try to not kill someone?" Clint scoffed.

"I am sure that I did not kill anyone at that laboratory where the Tesseract was kept. All deaths were mainly due to the building falling upon itself. I hurt people, but I didn't kill them." Loki pointed out and smirked when Barton frowned at him, "I also did not kill anyone in Germany. I think. It was only after I had met Thor that I lost interest in trying to save people. Then I only wanted to hurt him, especially after you proved that you never tried to see things from my point of view." He looked at Thor, but the previous anger was replaced by tiredness. He was tired of waiting for a day when someone, anyone, could at least try to understand him, instead of writing him off as a bad apple.

As Thor started to protest, Loki sharply raised his hand and stopped his brother from speaking further. He did not want their personal issues to be discussed in front of an audience, more than they had already been. It was his fault. He should have never brought it up. He simply stated, "Now you know all that you need to about the invasion. It was merely a ploy to distract Thanos from my real plan and hopefully destroy his army as much as possible. There were some other benefits from it, like you Midgardians finally went up against a species you were not prepared for, Avengers came together and both the Tesseract and the scepter were taken away from Thanos, which delayed his plans further. Had I followed the original plan of quietly taking away the Tesseract, no one, not here on Midgard and not on Asgard, would have been prepared even slightly for Thanos. He would have managed to obtain every stone within a few months thanks to the space stone's ability of reaching anywhere. No planet would have been safe and this day would have come way faster, with no explanation. And I would have been dead. No doubts about that."

Loki finished his drink and said honestly, "If any one of you had me explain all this back then, had any one you asked why I was doing all this, I could not have given an answer, not one that satisfied anyone, including me. What I have just told you all is after having had the time to think about all the events in detail, over and over again. It is up to you to decide what pre-defined category I fall under, whether my explanation can be taken on face value, whether my half-baked actions have actually had any positive impact for you, in the current situation. In any case, I do not care for it."

Loki casually got up from his perched position and walked to the door, not wanting to spend another minute with the Avengers for the moment. He stopped at the threshold and turned around. "You asked me whether I regretted it all. This is my answer: If I had to do it again, I would gladly do it. I played a gamble with my life and with the lives of the people on this planet. You may not understand it now, you may not understand it ever, but it was the lesser of the two evils available to me. So, I don't regret the invasion and I don't regret what all had happened during it, including taking your archer and others like him under my control. I can only pray for those who lost their lives, in any which way, to have found peace. This is my stand." He looked at Barton one last time, hoping to convey that even though he didn't regret doing it, he didn't like it either. With that he sauntered out but leaned in again and ordered, "Leave me alone if you value your lives. I promise I will not leave without informing someone."

Silence reigned as the sound of Loki's footsteps became lighter and then disappeared altogether. Everyone was lost in their own thoughts, not understanding whether to trust Loki's words or not. They seemed true enough, but were they? Was the lack of remorse the reason that he was a villain or did it make him a fighter ready to do whatever it takes to protect himself and maybe anyone he cared for? What would they do in his situation? They had a lot to contemplate and reflect upon.


	21. Chapter 21

**(A/N - Hey guys! Thanks for all of your comments! This chapter has everyone trying to work through the explanation that Loki gave and Thor and Loki have a much needed talk. Loved writing that part. So lemme know how this one is.**

 **Also, regarding the comment about how the explanation was not in line with canon, well, all events leading up to The Snap are canon but everything else, including the feelings and all analysis of situations are of my own creation. That includes Loki's explanation. Also, it is canon that he was being influenced by the mind stone. I only built up on it. I really hated the fact that Marvel killed Loki right when he was redeemed (and he was redeemed... he never tried to hurt Thor in either TDW or TR, other than trying to give Thor to the Grandmaster and I don't think he would have gone ahead with it. Loki knew how dangerous the Grandmaster is... he was scared for like half the time he was there).**

 **Sorry for the long(ish) rant but I really feel strongly about Loki.**

 **Anyway, let's go on with the chapter.)**

 ** _CHAPTER 21_**

"Now what's the problem?" Rocket broke the heavy silence, bringing everyone back to the present. "You wanted to know what he did and why and he told you. Now what are you waiting for?"

"Can we take his words on face value?" Steve asked in general.

"Do you have any other choice?" Brunn asked. "Unless you know someone else who could tell what was going on in Loki's mind, I suggest you take his words with a pinch of salt. I don't think he was lying… for the most part. There are bound to be some lies in there, no one would ever tell the complete truth in such matters."

"He has been cooperative ever since we met him on Sakaar." Bruce said. "Is it possible that he was maybe trying to help in his own screwed up way ever since the invasion? I mean, Thor did say that Loki had died on that dead planet while saving Thor in the process."

Sif pursed her lips and spoke up, "I cannot tell much about how Loki works, but I can guarantee that the way Loki fought here on Midgard, all those years ago, that was not the Loki we grew up with. He would never allow anything or anyone to touch him. He hardly ever had a scratch on him after a fight, unless it was obtained while protecting someone. He never plays around – he goes for the kill, whether be it during a hunt or a skirmish and yet here he was only playing around the entire time. From what I remember, he had many opportunities to kill any of you."

"And still each one of you survived. His explanation makes as much sense to me as everything else he does." Hogun said firmly.

Clint got up from his place and walked out abruptly. Tony moved to follow him but Natasha waved him down, "He needs to be alone for some time to think things through."

"I think we all do." Thor rumbled and walked out. He needed to clear his head. Things that Loki had told them all, things that he inferred, they were all messing up his set notions about everything, especially their father. Had Odin know? Had he known about all this when he sentenced Loki to solitary confinement, knowing very well that Loki could not bear silences? The god watched Barton go up the stairs towards the restricted area where the families were staying. Sighing, he went to the outdoor practice area. He wanted to be in an open area in case he lost control over the lightening running amok under his skin, trying to claw its way out in the open and cause as much havoc as possible, so that the outside mirrored his feelings.

"Tony," Steve called, "what do you think?"

"Me?" Tony was surprised that Steve was asking his opinion on something. Things may have improved between the two of them, but to this extent? He did not think so. Then again, Loki was the reason the two had even considered working together in the first place. It made sense that he would be the reason those two started to work together once again.

"Well, yeah."

Tony shut his eyes and bowed his head and mumbled, "I don't know what to think. Does his side of the story make sense? Maybe. We don't know him at all. How can we decide whether the actions he carried out are in character with who he is or was or whatever?" He leaned back and exhaled loudly. Looking at Steve, he pointed out, "Moreover, he has absolutely no remorse about killing anyone. For him, it is all a part and parcel of life. I mean, who doesn't feel bad after killing people?"

"Bad guys." Shuri answered.

"Hardened warriors." Brunn said drily. "Nameless and faceless people die every day. You don't feel bad for everyone." At the humans' shocked look, she smirked, "We are a warrior race. Do you know what that means? It means that before learning how to walk, we learn how to punch someone. Our bedtime stories include details of gory death. Dying in battle is the way every one of us wants to go. We live for around five millennia and in that time we get used to seeing people die. We cannot sit around, filling ourselves with regret over each life that was lost especially in a battle."

"She is right." Volstagg said. "We see people die, we kill people, we pay our respects and then we move on. It is the way of life for us. I know it sounds horrible but for a life this long, we would not make it past even a millennium if we do not follow this. That does not mean that we like the casualness of the whole thing. We are just used to it."

"Trust me, the only reason you guys are so wound up about it is because it happened to you." Brunn looked each of them in the eye. "None of you seemed to bat an eye when you were told of Nebula's exploits. How about this: I have personally killed hundreds of thousands of people of all species. Back then this realm was a wasteland and we didn't need to kill anyone to acquire it as part of the Nine, but every other realm? The elders still shiver at the call of the Valkyries. But, you don't care, because you were not on the receiving end of it. It is how things are, with everyone. Unless something horrible happens to you, you cannot care about it beyond a point. The point differs from person to person, but it is still there."

"We say this, not to disregard the pain or suffering caused by Loki." Heimdall said in his steady voice that made the humans feel at ease even after Brunn's callous words. "As a matter of fact, we condemn his actions and his insane plan of leading an invasion to get the Allfather's attention. Even though his intentions seem to be right, his actions were gravely wrong and not justified in the least. I am sure a part of him might feel the same, but refuses to see the ills done by him in favor of any and all good that came out of those actions. We only tell you this so as to help you understand the nature of our kind. Cultural barriers are the hardest to overcome and your judgement might be skewered due to it."

"We'll leave you guys to discuss all this. It must be a lot to take in especially if your entire species is as kind hearted as the little guy." Brunn smiled a little at a pink faced Bruce and got up to leave. The other Asgardians, too left with her.

"Where do you think Thor is?" Brunn asked as she led the way, but stopped short, not knowing where to go next.

"You want to go to Thor when he is upset?" Sif asked in surprise.

"Yeah, why not?"

"It is not wise to do so." Fandral grinned. "As a matter of fact, there has only ever been one person foolish enough to do so and successfully manage to talk to Thor without getting anything broken."

"Let me guess: Loki?" At the answering shrugs, Brunn sighed and asked, "Anyone wanna spar?"

"Of course!" Sif said excitedly, not wanting to miss an opportunity to fight against the famed Valkyrie.

"They are crazy. Every single one of them!" Scott muttered when only the Avengers were left in the room. Rocket and Nebula had excused themselves and went up to their spaceship, not wanting to stay in the uncomfortable atmosphere. None of the things that had happened, concerned either of them and since the Avengers were not finding any fault with Nebula, she wasn't really interested in reminding them of her past. They seemed to be pretty stuck to their own set of rules and principles.

"Can you fault them?" Shuri asked wisely and pulled her legs up on the couch. She looked more like a child that she actually was and less like the leader of the most advanced nation on their planet. "I mean, even here on Earth, we discriminate everyone based on a variety of things and we struggle to understand those who have a different thinking than ours. And here we are talking about an entirely different species, from an alien planet where everyone lives for like five thousand years or something. There are bound to be some cultural differences."

"Yeah, like how some hand gestures are considered rude in other countries…" Scott trailed off at everyone's confused look and added, "Hey, I was under house arrest for like two years. I have random information stored in my head by now. I also know how to do magic thanks to YouTube."

"Paltry card tricks, you mean or sleight of hand." Wong said in a disinterested manner. "That is not magic."

"Whatever. My kid loves them."

"Anyway," Steve interrupted the conversation from going further off topic, "the point is, cultural differences aside, can we really trust the person who attacked us, provoked us and killed hundreds? I read up on the stories we have here on Loki. They call him the god of lies. Can we trust anything that comes out of his mouth?"

"Lies or no, he seemed to hate Thanos. That much was obvious and if we can concentrate on that, then maybe we can see if he has some tricks up his sleeve?" Natasha questioned herself. It wasn't every day that she second guessed her own decisions, but today was one such day.

"We could just ask him." Banner suggested. "When I met him on Sakaar, I asked him if he was going to kill me and he replied with 'it varies from moment to moment' or something along those lines. He never tried to even provoke me the entire time."

"That's cuz the Hulk smashed him.

"He kind of didn't seem to mind the Hulk when we on the Statesman. I remember flashes of memories from that time."

"So, decision?" Tony asked, wanting to finish the discussion and seek solace in Pepper's arms. "Personally, I think we should leave that to Clint. He was the most affected out of all of us and his word should be final."

Clint stared out at the sea that was visible from this particular side of the facility. He could feel his wife move closer behind him after shutting the sliding door that led to their private balcony. The slightly cold wind ruffled his hair and the afternoon sun warmed him up. But the pleasant climate did nothing to soothe his turmoil. What to believe and what not to? This question ate him up. Should he hold on to the intrusion to his privacy and assault on his mind that Loki had so gladly done and accepted or should he listen to the logical side of his brain that pointed out few cues that suggested that Loki's tale held an ounce of truth in it?

Laura came and stood next to her husband, holding his hand in silent support as he battled his thoughts and tried to make sense of things. She knew it must be hard on him – on one side he could continue to be the agent who had been influenced by Loki and keep on feeling like a victim and second doubting his own moves and on the other side, he could let go of that feeling of helplessness and see the world in a better way and if in that way lay Loki's reclassification to a victim from a villain, then how much was Clint losing? Whatever the decision, she knew that Clint would voice out his thought process and she wasn't kept waiting for long.

"I feel like someone pulled the ground from beneath my feet." Clint muttered, speaking more to himself than to his wife. "Did he really? Was he… was he telling the truth? Does it even change anything? He did what he did and it was my world that was turned upside down. That… that feeling… suffocation… watching myself hurt the people I worked with for years. I couldn't even stop myself. Could only watch and scream." The archer felt his wife squeeze his hand and he took the support that she offered by just being present. He spoke to her, knowing very well that she had heard these words a million times before and yet didn't mind the repetition. "The… the helplessness that I was going through… you know… I don't know how much damage that little stunt of his did to my brain. It destroyed my career. You know that. Fury never gave me any other high profile case. Avengers were my only job… keeping tabs on them. I can't breathe sometime… what if… what if he is still in my head? What if he changed something in there… something fundamental? Nat says not to worry, not to think about it because I overcame it and we kicked his ass. How can I not worry? How can I be alright with all this? I already told him so much about the Avengers… so much about Natasha… what if I told him about you and the kids? I have put you all at risk! And now he roams free! At least when he was on Asgard, I felt a bit better, but now he is here, under this very roof and we have no freaking way of containing him. Hulk hasn't even made an appearance all this time and he was the only one who could literally put a dent on Loki. Thor loves him too much to hurt him and can we even trust the other Asgardians? Loki was or is still their prince. Wouldn't they listen to him over us?"

Barton sighed and sat down on the wicker chair. Closing his eyes, he tried taking a few relaxing breaths. In all this time, his wife had not spoken a word and as usual he was glad for her silence. He could not take yet another person telling him how he should feel and what he should do. He knew his friends meant well. They always did, but this was an experience that none could fathom and unfortunately, at the moment, if Loki's words were to be considered, he might be the only one who might have some sort of clue about what Clint was going through. And wasn't that ironic?

Thor dragged his feet with a heavy heart as he thought about Loki's confession. Now that the initial shock of the whole thing had worn away, it gave birth to restlessness, mostly about his wayward brother's whereabouts. The sneakers clad feet stubbed against a rock and Thor stopped himself from falling flat on his face. He looked around and found himself walking along the coastline. Well, on the cliff on the coastline to be more precise. The god looked out at the sea and could almost imagine himself back on Asgard, sitting on a similar cliff with his brother and friends, telling tall tales and sipping mead. Those were better times when there were no titans or stones to be worried about, when Loki's history had not been known to them and more importantly, when his family was still a happy family. Or had that been a façade? Had he been the only one ignorant to his father's deeds?

It was some paces ahead when Thor felt a shift in the atmosphere. Being attuned to the nature enough to be able to control it to some extent, Thor had always been able to tell when something was amiss. Right now, he felt a sort of charge in the air, but he soon relaxed as he figured that he had found where his brother had disappeared to. An agitated Loki had always had trouble controlling his power and it almost always resulted in a drop in temperature and an electric charge in the air, not unlike Thor's own lightening. However, unlike the lightening, Loki's power did not hurt anyone unless he wanted it to. As Thor made his way down the slightly rocky path to the seaside, he wondered whether his brother had calmed down enough to not hurt him on sight.

The golden haired king stopped short as he saw his brother's hunched form sitting on the edge of the sea, just shy of being touched by the water. Or maybe he didn't let the water touch him. He did always have an aversion to getting wet without reason. Loki's legs were pulled up against his chest and his head was resting on his knees as he continued to stare at the rhythmic movement of the waves, his green cape (he had changed back into his princely attire) fluttering slightly in the wind. In that moment, Loki actually looked his age and Thor realized that ever since the Bifrost incident (that was what he had resigned himself to call it), Loki had looked older than he truly was. Hel, sometimes he looked even older than Thor! But not now. Now he just looked like a lost child. That in turn made Thor feel lost. The feeling of drifting without anchor came back with a vengeance.

Ever since Ragnarok, Thor had been battling with the thought of having nowhere to go. Sure, he remained cheery in front of the people, telling tales about the beauty of Midgard, but Midgard wasn't Asgard, no matter how much he might try to make it like that for the people. They had lost their home, their families and no change of scenery was going to take away the hollowness that settled deep within all of them, especially Thor. Within a short span of a few years, he lost his brother (then got back a shell of who Loki used to be), lost his mother, his father, his favored weapon, his hair and the newly found murderous sister and now his home. The weariness was suffocating and Thor focused on what he had in front of him – a part of his old life in the form of his brother.

Lightening ran over his body as Thor removed the basic illusion of wearing Midgardian clothes. They were comfortable, no doubt about it, but he wanted a reminder of home at this moment and his own princely armor was just that – a taste of home. Thor took a few hesitant steps forward and sighed internally when the change in atmosphere slowly reduced to a more acceptable level. Perhaps Loki was comforted by his presence or he was just ensuring that he didn't accidently hurt Thor. Knowing Loki, it could be either of the two or something else altogether. Encouraged by the lack of hostility, Thor sat down next to Loki, mirroring his brother's posture. They sat in a semi comfortable silence, both waiting for the other to speak up and yet not wanting to break the ice.

"I did not yield." Loki whispered, his words almost getting carried away by the wind and lost in the sound of the waves and had Thor not been attuned to his brother to this extent, he would have definitely missed it. But luckily he did not. Although he was confused about what Loki meant. Whom did he not yield to? As if hearing the unasked question, the younger brother repeated himself, in order to drive the message home. Thor frowned but did not utter a word, scared that his brother would stop talking at being reminded of the present.

"I wanted to… many times… but I did not. I was… am not a traitor."

Understanding dawned and realization set in as Thor turned to peek at his brother. Loki was still staring at the horizon, but the tensed body muscles suggested that his complete attention was on Thor. Following this brother's example, Thor too fixed his gaze on the bright horizon and assessed the words spoken. He could not take them just on face value. More often than not, there was some other message hidden in Loki's dialect. That was the one lesson Thor had managed to learn the hard way. So he analyzed the words spoken and came at only one conclusion: Loki was trying to tell him that he had been brave… that he had not fallen weak when that had been the only choice available to him… that he did not willingly give up any information.

Thor smiled ruefully. He could not believe that Loki had wanted to show him, to tell him that he had not betrayed him. Wasn't that the one thing Thor always blamed Loki for? And yet, when he had the chance, Loki did not take it. The older brother needed no assurances for that. He knew that Loki had only ever betrayed him when it was just the two of them and it never included outsiders, not unless Loki was playing a bigger game. The only time Loki had included an outsider was the time of his botched coronation and even then he probably had some cards to play. It reminded Thor of one of the few times they had fought publicly – most of their fights were behind closed doors with hardly any audience other than their parents or their friends. But there was this one time when they fought in front of a rude visitor, who had then taken up the chance to insult both the brothers. That did not sit well with either of them. They were the only ones who were allowed to insult one another and if anyone else did it, well, despite their own issues, both the brothers would set the third party straight, like how they had done with that particular visitor. So, Thor needed no affirmation that Loki had not sold him out to Thanos or anyone else for that matter. He may have been angry and may have wanted retribution, but he would have never given out details to anyone.

"I know."

Loki closed his eyes in relief. Those two simple words from his brother had spoken volumes. He no longer had to worry about what Thor thought of him because Thor was now the only person in the entire universe who knew the real Loki. All remaining tension oozed out of him and he could feel himself get more in control of his emotions and in turn, his powers. Still, he felt like Thor needed more information and Loki was tired of leaving things to speculation. He had done that enough. He thought that his actions could speak louder than his words because no one ever listened to what he had to say, perhaps they would see the message behind his actions. Unfortunately, that had not been the case. Now, after years of misunderstanding, his brother was finally listening and not just hearing what he wanted to hear. And Loki was in a sharing mood.

"I only worked along with him because I thought that I could use the situation to my advantage. That I could escape and still be able to cause sufficient damage to both you and father."

"Why did you hate me so?" Thor asked the question that had been haunting him for years. He could never guess the reason for his brother's hatred towards him. Odin, he could understand to an extent – Loki and their father had always been at odds, but why him?

The question was left hanging in the air due to the silence that followed. Thor wondered if he would ever get an answer for that question and Loki, well, he had no answer prepared for this particular question. He could throw taunts and anger Thor like he had done all this while but what was the point? He was tired! One suicide attempt and two actual deaths and multiple near deaths later, he was just tired of keeping it all in. If his latest plan of getting the stones (still in progress) would work, then he might not make out of it, again, and he did not want to leave things left unsaid. Death's words rang in his ears. Right before he had gone off in search of his companions, Death had cornered him and told him clearly that 'this was the last chance'. If he died this time, there was no coming back. Not that he was certain that he would somehow manage to come back to life all the previous times. He looked at Thor briefly before turning his gaze to a wave forming in the distance. He was getting too attached. If he didn't leave soon enough, he would never be able to leave. With all these thoughts in his mind, he spoke his heart for the first time in many years.

"What do you remember of our childhood, Thor?" Loki asked, struggling to keep the bitterness away from his tone. "Was it happy? All smiles and no fears?"

"Not all the time but we were happy. Deliriously so, at times."

"Were we? Or were you? Thor, our childhoods… we spent it together but… but they were different from each other's. You were happy, I was… less so. You remember the good times and I cannot move past the bad. It doesn't… doesn't make either of us wrong, but it does make us very different from each other. You had things handed to you… don't deny it."

"I am not. If there is one thing I have learned after coming to Midgard, it is how much I have taken for granted."

Loki smiled, "At least the exile was of some use."

"Not the exile… I mean after the Convergence."

"Oh," Loki said simply and gulped the feeling of a little guilt at keeping his brother in the dark. But looks like it was important to his character growth. Well, all's well that ends well. That phrase had become his life motto by now.

Loki cleared his throat and continued, "Even as a child, I was aware that I was different, not only from our family but also from any other Asgardian and most would not leave any chance to remind me of that. Including you."

"ME?"

"Yes, you. How many times had you made fun of me in front of an audience? Even if it was just your stupid warrior friends, they were still outsiders. They were our guards first, friends later. You changed that. You never stopped them and if I tried, you would never hesitate to remind me to 'know my place'."

"It was all a jest, brother." Thor said desperately, remembering a few instances when he had made fun of Loki. But it was all harmless fun, wasn't it? Wasn't it?

"Jest, Thor?" Loki scoffed, his irritation resurfacing. "Even a joke runs its course and stops, but something at my expense? No, those 'jests' never stopped. They may have been oh, so hilarious for you all, but they had stopped being funny to me a long time ago. Leave that," he said dismissively. "What exactly did you mean by 'know your place'? What was my place? Tell me!"

Thor screwed his eyes shut and tried to think of when he had ever uttered those words to Loki and why would he do so?

"You don't remember, do you?" Loki asked, a sad smile adorning his face as he looked intently at his brother. At the ensuing silence, Loki sighed. "Of course you don't. One does not always remember the words spoken by them but the person who has to hear these things… they cannot forget. You always said those words when you were angry… at anyone and I had the misfortune of trying to get you to see sense."

"My place. What was it? Was it the prince of Asgard, the second in line but equal in command, one of the most powerful sorcerer, and that was the title the Vanir gave me, God of mischief, or was it your younger brother, who had always been taken for granted. What was my place, _brother_?"

"Loki…"

"You want to know why I hated you – this is why. You had always treated me as inferior to you, Thor. Always. And it was evident to all – to our people, to our friends and to me." Loki let out a shaky breath and tried to control himself. He could feel the traitor tears burning his eyes, but he would not let them fall. Not anymore. "Thor, things were always easy for you. Not for me. I had to always work double just to get the respect and consideration that was due to me, if not for my personality then at least for my station. I was always compared to you. Always. In whatever I did, I was never good enough, unless it was mother. She was truly the only one who treated us as equals. I was your equal, then why… why was I always told that I could never be as great as Thor? Why was I made to feel that I did not deserve anything that I was being given? Everyone always blamed me for looking out for only myself. Well, I had to do it, because no one else would."

"Loki," Thor's voice cracked, hearing the pain in his brother's voice, "I-I am sorry, brother."

"I am not doubting your love for me, Thor," Loki carried on as if Thor had not spoken, "but I am saying that you never respected me and without respect, I am sorry, but without respect, love means little. How could I not hate you after all this? After you made me feel like I was lesser than you? I even believed it. I did not know why it was so, but I believed it when I was told that you were better than me. And then I came to know my reality and I thought, of course I was lesser, because a jotunn could never be as great as an Asgardian, especially a discarded jotunn."

"It is not so." Thor said vehemently. "I was foolish. My words were foolish. I…"

"You have no need to explain yourself to me, brother." Loki interrupted Thor. "I do not blame you. That was what we both were taught. Thor before Loki. And that was why I hate father so much! We were children. We would blindly follow what we were taught, but Odin… he could have taught us different. Mother tried, probably, but we both were shadows of father. We loved to imitate him. I just wish we knew when to stop."

"Loki, I am truly sorry… for everything I did." Thor said, extending his hand to hold his hurting brother but not having the courage to do so after hearing Loki's accusations. But something in Loki's posture made him think that maybe his brother needed the comfort more than Thor needed to wallow in self-loathing. So he placed his hand on his brother's shoulder. Loki initially stiffened but then relaxed slightly.

Leaning into the comforting touch, Loki whispered, "Someday Thor, I'll forgive you. Someday." Loki knew it was a lie, the moment those words left him. He had, somewhere on the way, forgiven his brother for all the childhood traumas, but he could not let Thor know that. He had had time to work through a lot of his issues but Thor was only now grasping the extent of damage his thoughtless words and deeds had done Loki. If Loki forgave him now… then Thor would never learn. They no longer had parents to take care of them and show them the correct path. This was the least he could do for the only family member who truly wanted him, after their mother.

"Where's reindeer games?" Tony asked off handedly as he hunched over his work station.

"Still somewhere on the beach. Thor went there almost two hours ago. Neither have returned yet."

Tony nodded at Friday's response and absently tinkered with an old engine that he always disassembled only to reassemble it, whenever he was anxious. He needed to find another stress busting activity because the engine was now too easy to work on and it didn't help him at all. After the discussion with the others, he had made a beeline to his room, knowing very well that Pepper would come to him over there. And we wasn't wrong. Pepper had been waiting for him and he found peace in her level headed company. But that had been an hour ago and after several other discussions with other teammates, they were yet to reach a conclusion regarding Loki. Amidst all the heavy talks, Tony had felt like he would just explode and so he made his way to his safe haven – his lab. No one would disturb him here and he would be left to his own thoughts.

He was proved wrong when his trustworthy Friday alerted him that Clint was seeking permission to enter the lab. The inventor sighed and allowed entry, keeping his half disassembled engine away.

Clint Barton walked in and looked around at the semi lit lab. Just this very morning he had been here, talking about condemning Loki to the Raft and now… He took his time to reach an unusually patient Tony and perched on the desk adjacent to Tony's main work station.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Clint bit his tongue and wondered whether he was doing the right thing. This was the last chance to back down. "I need a favor." Not backing down now. With his heart thundering away, Clint asked, "How effective is that B.A.R.F. tech of yours?"

Tony straightened up and replied, "Pretty effective."

"I want one of those glasses. There's something that I need to see."


	22. Chapter 22

**(A/N - Hey guys! I know I'm late in updating and this is gonna be a short chapter, but recently my mom fell ill and I have been taking care of her along with a lot of other things, so I barely have time for anything else. I hope you guys like the chapter. Originally, it was gonna be big, with things moving ahead at a faster pace and I did think of updating only once that was done, but I didn't want to be absent for so long, so... read on!** **Enjoy :D )**

 ** _CHAPTER 22_**

Clint stared at the glasses in his hands. He had been doing that for the past half an hour. After Tony had given him a pair of the B.A.R.F tech glasses, he had left Clint in the lab and assured him that he could take as much time as he wanted. Friday had been assigned to help him and keep the lab close to all intrusions unless Clint was okay with the interruption. He had asked for the glasses but now that the time came to convert his thoughts into actions, he was hesitating. He had somehow managed to overcome those harsh memories, he didn't want to delve into them again.

"How do they work?" Clint asked Friday, trying to stall for time so that he could talk himself up to the task in front of him.

"In layman's terms, the tech in the glasses would access the memory of your choice and change it according to your wish. The aim is to slowly change the memory till you are able to work your way through it. It has helped boss work through a lot of things and has proven to be 76% effective in achieving its goals, based on the latest survey. It is 92% effective when used in collaboration with Wakandan technology. However, that information has been independently collected by boss."

"What if I don't want to change the memory?"

"It depends on you. If you think to change the memory, it will change it and project the changed memory. If you wish to access the suppressed memories, it will do that too, without making any changes. You could take it for a spin with a happy memory and slowly progress to the real issue. That was how boss started initially."

Clint nodded and wiped his sweaty hands on his jeans. Fiddling with the glasses, he asked, "So, I just… put them on?"

"Yes and think about the memory you want to access."

"Okay." Clint exhaled and plucked up the courage to put on the glasses. Slowly, his hands progressed upwards, towards his face and before he knew it, the glasses were perched on the bridge of his nose. Happy memory, he thought, what happy memory should he think of? Without much thinking, the most recent vacation with his family came into his mind and the next moment, it was projected in front of him. The scene was of a hotel room. Laura was sitting on the bed with Nate, trying to get him to take his afternoon nap while he was sitting on the floor with Lila and Cooper, playing a game made up by Lila on the spot. It had been a fun and lazy afternoon, the day before the alien attack in New York.

He smiled a bit at Cooper's bickering with Lila and thought back to yet another memory in which the two were bickering. The scene in front of him changed to their backyard. This was when he was under house arrest. It had been early evening and he had been teaching his older children how to use a bow and arrow. Lila had really surprised him with her quick grasping skills while Coop had shown much more interest in firearms, but Clint had not let him use the weapons. That was what had sparked a round of arguments among the siblings that had only ended when Laura had broken the two up.

He again went back in time, thinking about the fight amongst the Avengers two years ago, then further back to the day Nate was born. He kept up the process till he reached the first time he had seen the Avengers in one place, during the fight with Loki in New York. He took a deep breath and tentatively thought back to right after he had regained control, when he had been sitting with Nat in the tiny, uncomfortable room, talking about Loki and his evil shenanigans and how in over the heads they were.

Half an hour later, Clint was still sitting on the edge of a table, staring at the memory of Natasha and him talking about Loki, replaying over and over again. He cleared his throat and asked Friday, "It can access memories that we might not remember?"

"Yes," came the instant reply, "as long as something happened, it will be able to access it."

Barton bowed his head and closed his eyes. He thought about the moment before waking up in the room, when he had been fighting with Natasha. He felt the memory change in front of him and he slowly looked up. The near vicious fight was enough to render him speechless. He stared and stared and then stared some more. The next second, the glasses were on the floor and his head was buried in his hands. He sank to the floor, wondering how he could be that violent with Natasha. She was his best friend, his tutor and his trainee, all rolled in to one. How could he fight to death with her? If she hadn't knocked him out… he didn't want to think about what could have happened. The only consolation he had was that she was a better fighter than he was and would ever be.

He didn't know how long he sat like that, staring into the semi dark room.

 _'Never ever get emotionally attached to a case.'_ Clint jerked at the famous words spoken by Coulson during one of his training sessions. Phil had had a few rules that he followed no matter what. Not getting emotionally attached was one such rule. Then again, Coulson was known to not follow rules, so quite a few times, he himself had broken that rule, especially during the time they were chasing the Black Widow.

Clint remembered what Coulson had told him when the two of them were emotionally compromised on Nat's case. He had said to _'think logically, frame by frame, when nothing else works'_. Analyzing tough situations was something Clint was an expert in and so he looked at where the memory had been playing before he threw the glasses away. There was something wrong with it, but what? He closed his eyes and replayed it in his head. It wasn't all that clear but he could clearly see the amount of restraint being used in the fight – not only from Natasha's side, but also from his.

His eyes flew open and he scrambled to pick up the glasses. He then replayed the memory repeatedly. He walked through the entire fight sequence, concentrating on where all he had been pulling his punches, literally and figuratively. Satisfied with the results, he grinned. He may not have been in complete control, but he knew where to draw the line, at least when going up against the people he loved or remotely cared about. Unfortunately, most of the SHIELD employees did not make the list.

This news was the silver lining he had been looking for. Encouraged by this, he continued going through the horrible memories, trying to see where all he had exercised constraint, where all he had been closer to Clint Barton and not Loki's minion.

"It's been hours." Bruce said, looking at the wall clock in the rec room, where most of the Avengers were sitting. The Asgardians, barring Thor and Loki, who were still apparently at the beach, were also present. They were watching Shuri playing table tennis against Harley, with Harley in the lead while the other children cheered them on.

"It is going to take time." Tony answered nonchalantly. He wasn't all that worried about Clint. If something major happened, Friday would alert him at once. He was more worried about the missing brothers. "Has anyone seen or heard from Thor?"

"They are still at the water front, like they were five minutes ago, when you asked the same question and ten minutes ago, when you had also asked the same question…" Heimdall answered in exasperation. There were few people who could get on his ever patient nerves. Tony, along with Loki, were one of the few. He continued watching Brunnhilde spar with Okoye. They had cleared one area of the room to test out their moves against each other. Okoye was definitely one of the best warriors he had ever seen, despite the fact that she was not Asgardian.

Natasha sneaked out of the room and towards Tony's lab. She needed to check on Clint and hoped that he hadn't lost himself in the memories of the past. The usually accessible lab was, for the first time in many years, locked to her. She requested Friday to ask Clint to let her in and in a few seconds, the door slid open. Walking in, the first thing that she noticed was the darkness in the room. Tony never left his beloved lab dark and always had at least one light on even if he wasn't working there. Something about Butterfingers not liking the dark. She could hear some sounds from deeper inside the lab, where Tony's main workstation was and picked her way through the room.

The scene that she happened upon, left her speechless for a moment. Clint was kneeling on the floor, his eyes set on the memory playing in front of him. That was the source of the noise she had heard. In the memory, she could see a younger Clint with blue eyes, leaning against some stacked boxes and keeping an eye on everything happening around him. In an enclosed room stood Dr. Selvig, reading some sort of documents and a few mercenaries clad in black, top to bottom, roaming around. On the side, barely in Clint's range, sat Loki with his legs folded underneath him, his eyes closed as if meditating and his forehead scrunched up as if concentrating on something. The Clint in front of her was staring at Loki, inching forward to get a better look at the alien.

"Come here," he said softly, beckoning her with his fingers. Natasha walked quietly to her friend and crouched down next to him, trying to figure out what he was searching for. As if understanding her unspoken question, he said, "I'm trying to see if there were any proofs during my time under him that pointed to any truth about his captivity."

"Did you find anything?"

The archer nodded and removed his glasses, bringing an end to the memory. The lights turned on as the memory faded and Clint murmured, "Friday, bring up the recordings."

A hologram appeared in front of them, where the memory had been playing and the two agents stood up. "Look," Barton said, pointing at the first recording of his memories. This particular memory was of the very first attack by Loki when he had taken the Tesseract and Barton. As the memory played, Natasha saw the portal out of which Loki had stepped out. He was kneeling on the floor and dramatically stood up, the blue light of the Tesseract adding to the whole theatrics factor.

"See how he gets up?" Barton asked and she saw what he was pointing out. Loki took the help of his scepter to stand up and even then he looked a bit shaky, his hair unkempt and his eyes sunken. He looked far too different from the Loki who they had been talking to for half a day. "What do you think?" Clint asked, interrupting her thoughts.

"He looks like he needs a shower and a bed and lots of food. But that could be the effect of using the space stone to travel. Right?"

"Could be. That's what I thought first, but things didn't add up. I remember noticing that something was wrong, but then I was busy being Loki's yes-man to think about anything else. Look at this one."

The next scene showed Clint and a few other agents, all with the telltale blue eyes, running away from the falling building. Loki was stumbling along the way, with one or the other agent helping him in running. The scene changed again to an exhausted Loki leaning against a metal table as Clint reported somethings to him and the next showed Loki sitting on the floor, his eyes closed and his face scrunched up as if in pain. A few moments later, his head jerked to the right as if pushed by someone and he supported himself on his hand to keep himself from falling on the floor. When he opened his eyes, they were Tesseract blue before returning to their original color of light blue-green.

"You saw the change?" Natasha asked as soon as she noticed the different eye colors. "In his eyes?"

"Yeah, that was when I started believing his story. They don't remain the bright blue like they did for everyone else and that could either be because he has magic of his own or the more probable one – that he wasn't as influenced by the Tesseract as we were. I don't know what all was going inside that head of his, but this at least shows that some parts of his story were true." Clint pursed his lips in thought and suggested, "Maybe we could use these glasses on him? See his side of things?"

Natasha wasn't very confident about the last part. No one would ever want others to delve deep in their minds and from what she gathered about Loki, he would rather die than do something like that. Maybe Thor could shed some light on Loki's thoughts. "Hmm… maybe. We should tell the others."

"Yeah. Friday, call in the other Avengers. Don't alert anyone else."

Thor watched as a tiny crab walked over his booted feet and scuttled away. The salty water of the sea swept the crab away in a few moments and Thor wondered what the little guy would do now. He felt like he was the crab, being swept away in the sea of revelations that had taken place ever since he had gone to Asgard with Surtur's crown. How simple things had been before that! Thor looked to his side at the reason for his life turning upside down… once again. Loki was still gazing at the sea, lost in his own thoughts and hadn't even uttered a word since his heartfelt confession earlier in the day. Now the sun was setting and either of them were yet to speak a word.

"Shall we leave?" Loki asked, having both felt and seen Thor looking at him. "Your friends would be wondering where you had disappeared off to."

"Are you alright?" Thor asked quietly as he looked at Loki in worry. Loki had always been the silent one but something about this particular silence was unnerving Thor. He wasn't sure what it was, but there was something. And then he knew. Loki turned to return Thor's gaze and in his eyes, Thor could see Loki struggling with something. What it was, was beyond him, but as his eyes cleared in the next moment, Thor wondered whether he had only imagined it all.

"Of course, brother."

Lie. Thor knew it, but didn't push it. Instead, he accepted it with a slight nod and watched Loki get up and followed his example. Slowly, they trudged back inside and if Loki seemed a bit skittish, Thor didn't call him out on it.

"Hey, buddy!" Tony called out as he saw Thor and Loki walk in. He and the others had been called to the lab by Clint sometime back and were on their way. Bruce came to a stop next to Tony as he said, "Point Break, come along. Things to do, things to see."

Banner looked at Loki and pointed at the room they had just walked out of, "Everyone else is in there."

Loki barely acknowledged him and moved on, walking towards the area that Banner had pointed out. He stopped a door away from the open room that he had been heading towards and turned to look at Thor. His brother was just turning the corner with the Iron Man by his side. Making up his mind, the trickster god closed his eyes and turned around only to come face to face with Nebula.

"Loki…"

"I see you have obtained a new ear." Loki said bitingly, not wanting to stay a moment alone with the assassin. He knew that the assassin always tensed up when talking about her artificial body parts. "Now if you will excuse me, I have far more important things to do than talk to you."

Loki had only had the opportunity to take two steps when she said, "I need your help."

Amused, Loki stopped but didn't turn to face her. "And why would I even offer any sort of assistance to you?"

"Because I can tell you where the soul stone was kept." Nebula replied. "I know you will go after Thanos, sooner or later, and you need all the information that you can get." Loki turned around with a raised eyebrow and she knew he was interested.


	23. Chapter 23

**(A/N - Hi guys! I know it's been so long since I updated, but unfortunately, from now on the updates are going to be slow. I have recently completed my degree and now have to job-hunt, which doesn't leave all that much time to myself, considering that I am also taking care of my 11 month old sick nephew.**

 **I wanted to finish this fic off before Endgame hit the theatres but sadly, it is not so. I still have quite some bit to cover up. But, after this chapter, it will start moving faster. I enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you all will enjoy reading it.**

 **Read and review, guys!)**

 ** _CHAPTER 23_**

Thor absently nodded along as the others discussed something. He wasn't really listening to them, his thoughts focused on only one person – Loki. Lately, all he could think of was Loki, Odin or Thanos and he had valid reasons for each one of them. He tuned in for a moment and realized that the others were talking about various topics, ranging from food to Thanos. Shuffling around to get comfortable in his chair, Thor looked around the living room, where everyone had gathered after their dinner. Before dinner, when Tony had dragged Thor to his lab, the god had been apprehensive about what the others had decided upon. It was his brother's fate after all, but he needn't have worried too much. Apparently, Barton had wanted to use some sort of technology to access his memories from the time spent as Loki's minion and had found evidence suggesting that Loki had not been himself completely during that time and while the others had reluctantly called a truce based on the evidence, Thor needed no evidence for it. He believed Loki… well, not completely, but enough. He was sure that some of the justification that Loki gave them was made up on the spot and was probably not the actual reasoning behind his actions, but Thor wasn't as worried about that as the others had been. Not after everything the two of them had been through.

Something wasn't right. Thor knew it but couldn't pinpoint why he felt that way. He looked at the window in front of him and could see Loki's reflection in it. He was sitting quietly at the bar, away from everyone or as far away as he could be in a room full of Avengers and their allies. Ever since they had returned from the beach, Loki had not said more than a few words and while that in itself was not really alarming, after all, the younger prince was a god of few words, what really bugged Thor was the manner in which Loki replied. If he hadn't known Loki for as long as he did now, he would think that Loki was just being aloof, but he knew that his brother was really trying to alienate them. Whether it was because of all the emotional talks they had or because of recounting his horrifying past, Thor did not know. But what he did know was that Loki was going to leave, sooner or later. He just had that feeling and that terrified the god of thunder.

His fears weren't misguided. They all had retired early and now that Thor was alone with Loki once again, he could see that Loki was trying to work himself up to something. He waited patiently… for a few minutes, but when the uncomfortable silence stretched on and his patience ran out, Thor finally asked what was bothering his brother.

Loki sighed and stopped fiddling with a television remote. Where he had gotten it from, Thor did not know. Looking at his brother, Loki said in a nonchalant manner, "Well, I was going to do this the classic way – leave a note while you snore away to oblivion, but I suppose we can do this now."

"Do what?"

"I have to leave…"

"Loki! No!"

Loki held up a hand and gritted in irritation, "Hear me out, you oaf!" When Thor reluctantly shut his mouth, Loki continued, "It is not permanent, but I have to leave for some time."

"Why?" Thor asked and grinned sheepishly when Loki glared at him for the interruption.

"You Avengers are hopelessly unprepared to go up against Thanos. Just because you may have an inkling of where he might be does not mean that you can defeat him." He added under his breath, "If that were possible, it would have never gotten to this point."

Thor frowned and said sternly, "Loki, you are not to go up against Thanos without us!"

"Whatever gave you that impression?" Loki rolled his eyes. "I am not an idiot!"

"Agree to disagree." Thor muttered. "Listen, I talked to Sif earlier and she was saying that you had some plan of fighting Thanos to get the stones so you could return it to the celestials. She said that they are supposed to make sure that you succeed in it but that you might go off on your own."

"If I were to go off on my own then I would not be having this conversation with you, now would I?" Loki got up from the bed and Thor tensed. "I am not seeking him out…"

"Yet."

"Yet." Loki admitted. There was no use denying that fact. He was going to go after Thanos, with or without the Avengers. He would prefer with, but who knew what the future held. "But, I need to go now. I will return as soon as I can."

"Take me along."

"No."

"Loki."

"No." Loki looked at Thor's crestfallen face and said, "It is best if I go alone."

"Where are you going? Why are you going?"

Loki smiled and said, "As I said, I am not an idiot. Do not think that I will tell you my location so you can follow me there. Plus, you will be bored. It is an information gathering mission. No monsters to fight."

Thor frowned at his brother. It was obvious that he would not get any more information out of Loki and if he thought logically, it was really for the best that Loki left for some time. The Avengers were not really comfortable with him around and while Thor knew that they had called a temporary truce with Loki for the time being, he also knew that they needed some time to adjust to that and with Loki's presence, it was taking them so much longer. And Thor wasn't all that opposed to his brother travelling, but he needed assurance. Assurance that Loki would return, because he had had it with his family leaving him all alone.

"Why now?"

"What?"

"You heard me, why now? Why are you leaving now? You could have left even before this."

"Well, I didn't actually expect to run into you and your Avengers on Contraxia. I was going to drop the others here on Midgard and then go on this mission anyway. Yesterday was just so that I could rest for some time."

"You will return."

It wasn't a statement and yet it wasn't a question either, but Loki nodded anyway. He sighed and materialized the same ring that he had given previously to Thor, but Thor raised his hand in a stop motion and shook his head.

"I trust you."

Loki smiled a little and looked away. Wearing the ring once again, he looked up and said as sincerely as he could, "I shall return in a day or two." With that Loki disappeared and Thor sank into the bed. What was he going to say to the Avengers?

Tony watched as the liquid amber swirled in the glass in his hand, the ice cubes clinking softly against each other and the glass. A cool breeze made him gaze up at the few stars that were visible in the polluted night sky. He reclined against the couch in the patio and closed his eyes. The same scene flashed in front of him once again – he was holding on to Peter, the poor boy's pleading ringing in his ears as he tried to hold on to dust particles coating his hands. Tony's hand tightened on the glass as his heart clenched up in pain yet again.

"I thought you gave up drinking."

Tony opened his eyes with a start. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he had not heard Steve walk up to him, albeit from behind. Raising his glass, Tony muttered, "Exceptions can be made." He motioned to the whiskey bottle kept on the low glass table and asked, "Care to join?"

"Not particularly. They don't even affect me and I'm pretty sure Brunnhilde found the stash of Asgardian liquor." Steve sighed as he sat down on the armchair next to Tony. But despite his words, he leaned forward and poured some for himself in the coffee mug that he had in his hands. Leaning back, he took a sip of the spiked coffee and looked at his friend. Tony, for the first time since Steve had known him, actually looked his age. Normally, his exuberant nature made up for the many years that he had lived, but in the quiet of the dark, somewhat cloudy night, Steve could see the years on his friend's face.

Steve was of two minds. On one hand, he wanted to know what troubled Tony, but on the other hand, he hesitated to ask any sort of private question, for they may have been friends for longer, but the recent cracks in their relationship were more than enough to make him rethink the question that he would have had no trouble in asking a few years ago, before the whole Accords thing had torn them apart. Instead, he settled for a dissatisfactory, 'how's your wound?' type of question.

"It'll heal," came the short reply. Then, a sip later, "I've had worse."

The two settled into a somewhat comfortable silence, which on the surface was alright but if one dug deeper, then they would find the sort of awkwardness that came with small talk made among strangers. Yet, the two were not strangers. Which was why Tony knew the real question that Steve had meant to ask, beneath the words actually uttered.

He thought about Peter. The kid would have loved to meet Steve. Tony could never get him to shut up about the famed soldier and had Peter been here, in this very situation, his incessant babble would have filled up the silent night. And if Tony thought about it, Steve would have instantly taken to the teenager. After all, the kid was like a modern version of the Captain, what all with his impeccable morals and such.

Without thinking, Tony said softly, "You would have liked him."

"Whom?"

"Peter. The spider man kid." Tony sniffed. "You would have liked him."

"He was from Queens." Steve said with a nod, thinking about the infamous fight at the airport and how the kid had not stopped talking the entire time. Tony made a noncommittal sound and Steve could not resist any longer. "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you get him involved in all this?"

"He's … was… persistent." Tony stared into nothing and spoke softly, "I found out about him through a video uploaded on YouTube. He was stopping speeding vehicles and what not. I needed the help."

"Against me." Steve spoke accusingly.

Tony shrugged, "Against you, for you. How does it matter anymore? You were breaking the law, going against the Accords. I didn't want to… but those were the orders."

"Oh, and you are just so good at following those, aren't you?"

"We had two options back then, Steve. We could either follow what the Accords said while saving the people by being the good, law abiding guys or we could go all vigilante on their asses. And we both know which one you chose."

"I wasn't going to give up my freedom for something that I did not believe in."

"And you weren't going to get anywhere without the governments backing you up! The Accords took away our freedom, yes, but they gave us a way to continue helping the people. They were not perfect and still leave a lot to be desired but Steve, sometimes you have to bend a little to get more work done."

The Captain sighed and muttered, "We both know that the fight wasn't really about the Accords."

"No," Tony sighed resignedly, "it wasn't. I'm sorry. He… Barnes was a good friend of yours."

"The best I ever had." Steve felt tears prickling his eyes as he thought back to Bucky's confused state when Thanos had snapped his fingers. "He was… his last… so confused. I have never seen him that… never seen him like that."

"Yeah." Tony breathed in sharply and forced out the words that choked him, "Peter… he… he was the last one to… you know… he saw the others disappear. He was… he was begging me to save him… a-and I couldn't… I tried but I… I failed."

Steve looked up at his friend as Tony's voice broke and the man took a shuddering breath to keep himself calm. In that moment, Steve saw how much this Peter kid meant to Tony and he couldn't bring up the anger at recruiting such a young child, to the forefront. He didn't see a friend grieving. He saw a father grieving a lost child and he had seen enough of that during the war to know what it looked like. Silently, he reached forward and squeezed Tony's knee in what he hoped would be viewed as comfort.

"You didn't fail." Steve said the words that Tony had needed to hear but still did not let himself believe. "It was Thanos' fault and I swear, we are going to kill him, even if it the last thing we do."

Tony looked up with unshed tears and fire in his eyes and Steve felt a sort of hope burn through him at the steely, "Yes, we will."

The two men settled back into their seats and Steve asked after a while, "Tell me more about Peter."

"Only if you tell about Barnes." Tony said with some difficulty. While he knew that Barnes wasn't really responsible for his parents' death, he still had some trouble dealing with the whole thing. Still, it was better than his reaction two years ago.

Steve raised an eyebrow in surprise but didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. "Deal."

"Peter reminded me of you." Tony admitted with a small smile. "He was the kind of person who would… who actually had gone out in only a hoodie if it meant saving people and stopping the bad guys. He was always getting into trouble and not the 'save the world' kind either."

A smile tugged at the soldier's lips and he said, "Same with Bucky. I think half our childhood was running away from neighbors after accidently breaking something of theirs."

Tony snorted. "If put together, those two would probably turn this place upside down."

"Probably." Steve agreed, content to stay in an imaginary land of utopia where Bucky and this Peter kid got up to no good, together.

The two friends stayed out in the night for quite a long time, talking about lost friends, pasts and memories shared together. The earlier tension had eased and receded to the background, still there but no longer threatening to overwhelm them. By the time morning came and the others gathered around the kitchen island in search of breakfast, everyone else too, could sense the change and a sense of peace settled amongst the six Avengers.

Until…

"Where's Loki?"

Thor stopped shoving cereal into his mouth as he looked up at Clint, giving the archer the sheepish look, which made everyone else look at the god. Thor himself had been hoping that they wouldn't have noticed for a while longer… like maybe two days, by when Loki had promised to return.

"I don't know." Thor answered honestly. He really didn't know where Loki was, seeing as how his brother had refused to tell him anything.

"You left him alone in the house?" Clint seethed.

"Not exactly." Thor offered a sheepish grin and said, "He is not here. He left last night."

"What? And you let him go?" Tony yelled. Annoyed, he turned to face the golden eyed Asgardian but before he could ask anything, Heimdall said, "I, too, cannot see him and therefore do not know his whereabouts. When he travels, the energy of the universe clouds my sight."

"Are you kidding me?!" Clint pushed his half eaten cereal bowl away and rubbed his forehead. Just when he had thought that they could afford a temporary truce with the guy, he goes and disappears!

"He said he is collecting information." Thor said. "He promises to return by today or tomorrow."

"Thor," Sif said exasperatedly, "I told you, he was definitely planning to leave us here and go after Thanos."

"He assured me that he wouldn't!" Thor argued. "He will return!"

"And you trust him?"

"To return? Yes!"

The confidence in Thor's tone was enough to quiet the others' protests. It was in the resulting silence that Nebula spoke up, "I asked him for a favor. He would be doing…"

"What favor?" Natasha asked sharply, not at all liking the absence of the resident enemy. Thor, too leaned on his elbows, wanting to know why his brother had gone just like that.

Loki crept along the walls quietly as he took in the barely recognizable workshop. He had visited the realm of the dwarves along with Thor and the Allfather when he had been younger (and gotten into quite a lot of trouble each time since then), but now he could barely see beyond the dust coating the surfaces. His own breathing was too loud in the silent graveyard of a workshop. Normally, the place would be teeming with dwarves and none could hear above the noises of the various machines that would be spouting weapons one after another. Now, the silence clawed at Loki's skin, trying to bury itself inside him and slowly suffocate him. Where were the hundreds of dwarves? Where was everyone?

Thor had obviously gotten his new weapon made here, then where were the makers? Had they all disappeared in the snap? That could not be, could it? Thanos would not have given instructions to destroy an entire species, would he? And why would he instruct to destroy the one species that could make him the best weapons in the entire universe (not that he needed any weapon anymore)?

"Stop there, boy!"

Loki stopped immediately, grinning as he recognized the voice that had almost always caught him while making mischief. He spun around and looked at the king of dwarves. Inclining his head in the semblance of a bow, he greeted almost fondly, "King Eitri."

The gruff king replied, "Thor said you were dead."

"I was. Not anymore, though."

The king didn't seem fazed by that response. He had heard weirder statements from Loki. "What are you doing here?"

"Why does anyone ever come to this dusty, old place?"

"I don't have time for this." The king huffed and turned away, dragging his feet to the corner he had occupied ever since Thanos had attacked his home.

Loki frowned and followed the old king. Eitri had always been a grumpy, old man, but he never backed down from the semi-friendly banter that the two of them had developed over the years. Sure, in the beginning, like everyone else, Eitri, too, had not taken to Loki immediately but after having spent a decade or two learning about various weapons under the famed dwarf as part of his studies, they had reached an understanding.

"Where is everyone?" Loki asked as they reached what he assumed were the temporary quarters for the king. The king, himself, was shrouded in darkness, unwilling to step into the light.

"Dead."

"What happened?"

"Thanos!" Eitri spun dramatically, making Loki step back in surprise. "He took everything, killed everyone." Loki stayed silent, hoping to encourage the dwarf to explain further. It worked. "He threatened us, made me make him the gauntlet and then… then he did this!" Eitri shrugged off the thick cloth around his shoulders and arms and brought his hands up for Loki to see.

The young prince swallowed loudly as he took in the stumps that used to be Eitri's hands. His anger at Thanos increased tenfold. This was his friend (sort of – Loki didn't do friends) that Thanos had hurt. His people that Thanos had killed. Loki was almost prepared to seek out the purple giant and fight him… almost. Thankfully, he remembered what he came to Eitri for.

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry won't get my hands back, boy! Nor would it bring back my people. What is the worth of your 'sorry'?"

"What is the worth of revenge?"

Eitri raised a brow and sat down in a defeated manner. "You are as crazy as your brother if you think that you can go up against that monster. And don't even think about asking me for a weapon. I have none left and I can no longer make any."

"Then how did you make the stormbreaker?"

"Thor made it." At Loki's surprised look, Eitri nodded at the closed off star and said gruffly, "He, like the stubborn idiot he has always been, took on the brunt of the star's power to make his new weapon."

"He did WHAT?" Loki looked at the star in horror as he imagined Thor trying to attempt something like that. "That should have killed him!"

"I told him the same thing. But he called forth the ancient powers."

"Makes sense." Loki said.

"I will ask you again, what are you doing here? I cannot make weapons for you, not that, if I were able, I would do it. Norns know, you get in ample trouble as it is." The dwarf grumbled. "So, what do you want?"

"Weapons are not the only thing that you excel in." Loki said nonchalantly as he approached the defeated royal. He placed a careful hand on one of the bloody stumps that used to be the best hands in the universe and said, "Perhaps we can reach an understanding."

Eitri let out a bark of a laugh and said, "You haven't changed a bit, have you? Reach an understanding! Ha! Fine, boy. I am listening. What do I have to lose?"

"Nothing," Loki smirked as he called forth his knowledge on dwarf anatomy and looked at the king in determination, "but everything to gain." This was going to be a tricky piece of healing – growing back a body part that too for someone else was always tricky, not to mention quite draining, but he needed the information and the first step to getting the king to let loose his tongue was to give something in return.

"It's been a day. You still think he would come?" Natasha asked softly as she handed a cup of coffee to Thor, who had been staring at the garden through the glass walls for almost an hour. The sun was shining directly on the god's face, but he did not seem to care about it. It had been an entire day since Thor had informed the others that Loki had left the premises on some self-appointed mission.

"It is too early to start doubting. He did say to give him two days." Thor sipped the steaming coffee and said softly, "I wish you knew my brother the way I know him, then you would not doubt this much."

"Ha! So, you do doubt." Val snorted from where she was sitting on the couch next to Thor.

"If there is something that Loki has taught me, it is that a healthy dose of doubt is always necessary in life."

Nebula, who had been silently observing all the conversations going on in the room, including the little argument that the children had been having for the better part of the last half an hour, spoke up, "Thor, will he do what I asked him to do?"

Thor did not turn around but simply said, "My brother does a lot of misdeeds but breaking his word is not one of them."

"Which is why we know that he will return, at least for finishing off your request." Sif chipped in her two cents.

"He better come by tonight then." Nebula muttered and went back to her silent vigil.

Loki rubbed his nose in irritation as the acidic air assaulted his nostrils once again. He preferred the dusty and gloomy atmosphere of Nidavellir to the acidic and suffocating one of Vormir. He looked around him and wondered what possessed the soul stone to reside in such a place. Then again, no sane person would ever willingly come to this part of the universe. The whole area was a desolate, barren location, where no life form could ever take hold. Loki could see why. The pathways of the universe were all broken in this area, but it did not feel natural to him. Perhaps, being the semi-sentient beings that they were, the stones had themselves ensured that none could enter the area. Perhaps, they themselves kept their strongest link, but weakest in defense, safe from outside interference. Not many were privy to the location of the soul stone.

Loki thought back to the talk he had had with his once torturer. At first, he had not been inclined to help her out in any way, even if it was just proving a bit of comfort, but then his traitorous mind had vividly thought about what he would do in her position and he had reluctantly agreed to her terms. And, now, as a result, he walked the length of a narrow mountainside to reach the famed and elusive guardian of the soul stone.

"Loki, the betrayed king of Asgard," a voice echoed around Loki as he reached a sort of plain land, "come and ask for the knowledge you seek."

The god noticed a hooded figure, leaning against the mountain wall and walked towards the guardian. He stopped a few paces away from the hooded being and waited till the person raised his head. The red face was easily visible and the god tilted his head, trying to recollect where he had seen this person before. The man looked familiar. Then it clicked! The Tesseract had shown him all the knowledge that he wished for, at the time being. Back when he had attacked Midgard, he had wished to know above and beyond what Barton could tell him about the Avengers and the Tesseract had shown him just that. This red faced man had been the Captain's adversary.

"Red Skull, I presume." Loki said with a hint of a smirk.

"In another lifetime, yes." The guardian said emotionlessly.

"The space stone brought you here." Loki remembered the chain of events that had led to the seemingly end of the alter ego of the deranged scientist.

"In that lifetime I had wished for all the power in the universe and the space stone granted me that. It brought me to the greatest power source in existence, with just one condition – I can never gain it."

"And yet you are destined to bring others closer to their goals."

"Indeed."

"So, you would know how to take the soul stone all for yourself. And yet, you did not."

"To obtain the stone, one must sacrifice something dear." The guardian paused and looked Loki in the eye. "How much do you know about a true sacrifice?"

Loki listened patiently to the philosophical lecture given by the ex-villain. The more they talked, the more Loki understood about the stones. It was obvious that even the guardian did not possess complete knowledge about the infinity stones but the information that he did possess, was more than enough for Loki to come to his own conclusions. He just hoped they were the correct ones. He could easily verify his assumptions by visiting the celestials but he had a feeling that he would not be welcome unless he went there to return the stones.

The two ex-villains walked to the edge of a cliff as they continued exchanging knowledge and views. Loki stopped at the edge and looked at the red faced being. "Should you not have gone once the soul stone was taken by Thanos?"

"I suppose my purpose had not been served then. I feel that the Tesseract would decide when that is achieved." Red Skull nodded at the canyon in front of them and said, "However, the purpose for your visit has been completed. You will find what you are looking for, down there. Remember my words, Asgardian."

With that the guardian disappeared and Loki had a feeling that he would not be returning ever again. He leaned forward and looked below at the flat surface. Therein, he could make out the outline of a body. That must be Gamora. Tucking his hair behind his ears, Loki jumped and landed in a crouch next to the body. He looked up and frowned. The distance wasn't all that much. He could easily traverse it without even a thought and granted that he had the ability to cross far larger distances than Gamora, he had also seen Gamora jump more than this meagre distance. The fall should not have killed her and yet her lifeless body was splayed out in front of him.

He ran a cursory eye over the body, but there were no fatal wounds, which meant that it was truly the fall that killed her, but it should not have happened. Shrugging, he bent to pick her up and paused. He blinked over and over again till the missing piece registered. There was no blood! How could the fall have killed her and yet have no evidence of the same? Even her body did not show signs of broken bones or such that should have been there. How could this be? His mind raced with possibilities as he picked up his once torturer and leapt up, trying to find the opening to the pathways.

It was Rhodey who spotted Loki first. The god was walking casually towards the facility and if it had not been for the body cradled in his arms, the lieutenant colonel would have thought that the god was just returning from a late night stroll. He alerted the others and by the time Loki reached the building, all of the Avengers were present at the gates and the civilians were safely tucked away in safer areas of the house. Loki ignored them all and walked inside, only barely nodding at Nebula.

"Gamora!" Rocket whispered brokenly as his eyes filled up with unshed tears. He rushed in after Nebula, spurring the others to also follow them.

Tony directed Loki to the med bay, where Loki promptly laid his burden down on the nearest bed and stepped away for the friend and family to gather around the still body. He wasn't really surprised when Thor happened to be one of the 'friends' to gaze fondly at the green alien. Not waiting to be addressed, Loki turned around and started walking out, only to be stopped by a faint 'thank you'. He nodded his acknowledgment and left to get some much needed rest. He was exhausted beyond belief after all the travelling and healing Eitri.

"This is my sister, Gamora." Nebula said in an uncharacteristically soft voice. She held her sister's arm while Rocket settled down next to Gamora, whispering something under his breath. Saying a soft prayer, Thor walked out and the others followed, wanting to give the two some privacy. They could understand the importance of the moment. The fact that even one of them could get back the body of a loved one, was… well, overwhelming. In a time where death left no evidence behind, this was the greatest gift. At least one of the fallen could get a proper farewell.


	24. Chapter 24

**(A/N - Hi guys! Guess what?! I watched Endgame and now I am sad cuz it's all over :( but glad that it happened. Anyway, here's the next chapter, so enjoy! I didn't have time to beta read it so if there are any mistakes or some such, lemme know.)**

 ** _CHAPTER 24_**

"Go away, Thor!" Loki grumbled and covered his head with the blanket, trying to dissuade Thor from waking him up… for the umpteenth time. He was far too tired to even consider waking up. Maybe the impromptu healing of Eitri's hands wasn't such a good idea after all.

"Now, you really need to get up, brother." Thor sighed as he flopped down on the bed, next to Loki. "Why are you sleeping so much, anyway?" Loki didn't reply, hoping that Thor would just leave. Instead, the older brother lifted a corner of the blanket and peeped in, saying, "Loki, I asked something."

"Why do I have to get up?"

"Because, despite you wanting nothing to do with her, it would be bad form to sleep through a funeral."

That woke the dark haired prince. Sitting up, he asked, "Funeral? Whose funeral?"

"Gamora. Remember her? You brought her back for Nebula's sake?"

Loki groaned and rolled out of bed. "Go ahead. I will be there in sometime, unless the Avengers still do not want to leave me alone without some idiot watching my every breath."

"Come soon. There is probably some lunch still left." At Loki's frown, Thor explained, "You slept through both breakfast and lunch."

The Avengers watched in concealed amusement as Loki gobbled up the leftovers of not only the lunch but also breakfast and last night's dinner. There was no doubt in their minds that he was truly Thor's brother. They had only seen Thor eat like that, with the exception of Volstagg.

"Now, what were you saying about there being a funeral?" Loki asked his brother as he slapped Volstagg's hand away from his plate.

"You don't need to attend if you are going to be disrespectful." Rocket grumbled sourly. "We only ask because you got her back."

The prince shrugged and said, "Wasn't planning to, anyway. I don't like her or her sister." He looked pointedly at Nebula and leaned back in his chair and said, "But, you should probably hold off the funeral."

"She deserves a peaceful rest!"

"Only the dead require peaceful rest."

"Loki?" Thor interfered before Rocket could launch himself at Loki for disrespecting his dead friend. "What are you talking about?"

"Just that I don't think that Gamora is dead…"

"You think she would pretend?" Nebula growled. "She was not a coward like you."

"…not dead through conventional means." Loki ignored the jibe and stood up to fetch himself a glass of water. "Thanos killed her, yes, but do you know how he did it?" Swallowing the water, he answered his own question, "He pushed her off a cliff. Now, the height and the fall would have killed a Midgardian but it wasn't that high for Gamora. Nor does her body show any signs of trauma. Ergo, she did not die by conventional methods."

"But brother, she is still dead." Thor said softly.

"Not necessarily." Loki said casually as if he was discussing the weather.

Nebula felt hope burn through her but she pushed it down. She had seen the body. There was no denying it. Nothing Loki said would change the facts. She told him as much. "To obtain the soul stone, one must sacrifice something dear. Thanos sacrificed Gamora. He killed her, conventional or not, my sister is dead!"

Loki took a deep breath and pushed his hatred towards the sisters down. He tried to empathize and although it was hard for him to do something like that in any situation, he still put himself in Nebula's shoes and wondered what he would be like if it was Thor instead of Gamora, whose body was lying lifeless in the next corridor. He closed his eyes at the horrifying image and pinched the bridge of his nose in order to get some control back on his feelings. Raising a placating hand, he asked, "Do you know what a sacrifice is?"

"Killing someone in order to please someone." Rocket muttered harshly.

"That is one of the meanings, yes, but it is not the only one and it is not the one that we should be concerned with right now." Loki leaned against the countertop and explained, "The sacrifice that the soul stone requires is the act of giving up something valuable in order to achieve something that is considered far more valuable. It is an exchange. In essence, Thanos exchanged Gamora's life for obtaining the soul stone."

"We already knew that." Natasha said. "Get to the point."

"To get to the point, you would first need to understand the soul stone."

"Not much is known about the stone. It was even considered a myth at a point." Nebula said with a frown.

"Except for one person. The guardian." Loki smirked and continued, "I met him and he told me what he knows or rather, knew about the stone."

"The guardian is dead?"

"The guardian died years ago. It were only the stones that were keeping him over there. However, he is not our concern. Let's get back to the soul stone. You see, the name of each stone suggests what it does and then some."

"Yes," Wong spoke up, having gained an interest in the alien sorcerer the last time he had met the infamous alien, "the time stone allowed the wearer to time travel and see all timelines at any given time."

Loki nodded. "Similarly, the soul stone is connected to each soul in the universe. Yours and mine and everyone else's. But unlike the other stones, it needs power to start working. The other stones are sentient enough to not need anything like that."

"That was what you explained back there." Hogun muttered and Loki hummed.

The young prince looked around him, trying to find some inspiration to allow him to explain how it all worked. He found a black device on the table and asked, pointing to it, "How do your devices work?"

"Smartphone?" Tony questioned. "Batteries that use electricity."

"Electric charges…hmm… this will work." Loki muttered to himself and looked at the confused faces in front of him. "Alright. Imagine the six stones as a sort of machine, where each stone is a separate part, useful separately but better when put together. The soul stone is the powerhouse of this machine, something like the battery for your devices. You can bring all the stones together, but if you do not have the soul stone, the machine would not work and then each stone would have to be used individually. Now, as I said before, the soul stone is the only stone that requires some sort of power to work, much like your devices. You would need to provide the 'battery' with electrical charges for the device to utilize it and work, wouldn't you?"

"So, you are saying that the soul stone is the battery and it would require some equivalent of charge to work together as a single unit." Shuri said and then grimaced, "Souls."

"Very astute." Loki smiled a bit. "Yes, souls. The soul stone would require a soul to work. However, the soul needs to be sacrificed."

"Why?"

"Once the soul stone is obtained, the other stones are relatively easy to acquire. But, one needs to have conviction to do something like this, which is why the sacrifice is a sort of test to see how determined the person really is towards the mission. The sacrificed soul becomes the original power that activates the stone. That is why I believe that Gamora is not dead but merely… gone, unavailable at the moment."

"But she is dead. You brought her body here." Steve said vehemently.

"No, Captain. Death leaves a mark after she takes a soul – a physical mark that can be perceived, whether it is internal to a body or external, it does not matter. But a mark, she does leave. Yet, there is no such mark on Gamora's body – internally or externally. You can examine, if you so wish, but I guarantee that there will be no such marks."

"The soul stone, on the other hand, leaves no marks. It just converts the soul into its own energy. It simply took Gamora's soul and left the body behind, just like what happened with all those who 'died' in the snap."

"There were no bodies!" Tony snapped at the irritating god.

"Only because all of the stones were being used. If only the soul stone was used, then only the soul of the people would have been taken. But since all of the stones were used, the people who disappeared were erased from all elements. Space – they ceased to occupy space; time – they no longer have a future; power – they no longer hold any sort of power; mind – they no longer have a mind of their own and reality – they no longer exist in this or any other reality. Dead people do not just disappear, Avengers."

"So, all those people…" The hope in Steve's tone made Loki stop for a second and then he nodded.

"None of them are truly dead. Well, they were not dead when they disappeared. I cannot say how they fare now."

"Meaning?" Shuri asked hopefully. Maybe her brother was still alive, just in some other realm! After all, the possibility of there being other realms or even universes was no longer a fantasy. If there could be stones that could destroy with just a snap then other unexplainable things could also exist.

Loki straightened himself up and assumed the pose that Thor had once nicknamed his 'teaching pose'. Looking at the inquisitive child, he asked, "Do you know of the phrase 'energy can neither be…'"

"Created nor destroyed, yeah. What 'bout it?" Tony interrupted, not having the patience for some lecture, although he was very much interested in finding out more about the mysterious stones.

Loki gave Tony a withering look that reminded the inventor of his old college professor, whom he had always interrupted, especially during important lectures. Despite the interruption, he continued addressing Shuri, "You must already know that each being is a form of energy and therefore not even Death herself is allowed take a person's body even on his/her demise. Not even the stones can bypass that rule. However, once all the stones are collected in one place, they are duty bound to listen to their collector's wish and if they find enough conviction in the request, they will fulfil it, regardless of the consequence. Which is what they did. Thanos wanted to remove half the population in the entire universe, however since that action would tantamount to destroying energy, the stones simply sucked in all of that energy. All of the souls went to the soul stone and their individual aspects were stored in the other stones."

"So basically, they are neither alive nor dead."

"Yes."

At that simple affirmation, everyone's face lit up in joy. At least their friends were not dead. Loki shook his head at the naïve joy and said, "There is one issue with that and that is the soul stone itself. It stored a large amount of energy within itself and as anyone intelligent enough should know, a foreign energy cannot be stored for long. Therefore, the soul stone would have already started the process of converting the foreign energy of so many souls to its own required energy. Slowly, but surely, each soul would be converted and when that happens, the individual people would cease to exist completely. Their souls would never get the peaceful rest that Death can provide them with."

"Not only that," Loki said after a pause, "but once the energy is all converted, the sheer amount of it would be near impossible for the soul stone to handle and according to the celestials, there is a high chance that it would result in the stone destroying itself, which in turn would destroy at least half of the universe."

As everyone digested this new knowledge, Loki relaxed once again, having imparted most of the knowledge he had, albeit in simpler terms. Now he waited for the others to come to terms with the information.

It was Brunnhilde who broke the silence, "So what can be done?"

"Return the stones to celestials." Loki intoned. "That would allow Death to absorb any soul remaining in the soul stone and therefore stopping any cosmic explosions." He nervously stroked his left palm and added, "Or… reverse the wish."

"Wait, what?" Sif asked in astonishment. "You never said that it was possible."

"Neither did I say that it was impossible."

"What… what are you saying?" Bruce asked, cleaning his glasses. The hope that he tried to keep out of his tone had somehow seeped in by the end of his question and everyone else had immediately looked at Loki.

"In theory, Thanos' wish of erasing half the population can be reversed if another could obtain all the stones and place the request with even more conviction than Thanos had. Then and only then, can the souls who are yet to be converted, can be returned to the universe. It would also not result in a cosmic explosion."

"So, we can get our friends back and save the universe at the same time!" Rocket surmised and grinned widely. "I'm in."

"But we would need to get the gauntlet from Thanos and somehow reverse the wish. It's not going to be easy." Natasha pointed out.

"Especially now that we don't have the bug lady to put him to sleep." Tony added.

"What were you going to do?" Sif looked at Loki. When she received no response, she added, "You were anyway going to go ahead and get the stones from Thanos, right? So what was _your_ plan?"

As everyone turned to look at Loki, the god shuffled his feet and Thor groaned. "Don't tell me, brother, you don't actually have a plan."

"It's a work in progress." The younger brother growled out.

Everyone stared at Loki for a while before sighing and striking up a conversation with new found vigor. Scott summarized their goals for them, "Basically, just find Thanos, get the gauntlet or whatever off his hand, wear it and then snap. Wish reversed and everything is back to normal."

"Sans anyone who has been converted to soul energy." Bruce added.

Loki scoffed and said, "If only it were that easy. If it could be done this way then I would have already done it, don't you think? Even if you all somehow manage to subdue Thanos long enough to get the gauntlet off of him and keep him occupied enough to actually use it, it still would not work."

"Why not?" Tony asked with a frown.

"Because the gauntlet is rendered useless… well, almost useless. Definitely not strong enough to survive another use of the stones." Loki looked at Thor and said, "I went to see Eitri."

"Who now?" Scott asked in a confused tone and Loki decided that confused was the only state the Avenger was capable of.

"Eitri is the king of dwarves and the best weapons creator in the entire universe. He was the one who made the infinity gauntlet that Thanos uses now, under duress, obviously. He is also the one who made both my hammer and my axe." Thor explained grimly.

"Well, he said that the gauntlet, however strong and durable, still will bow down to the power of the stones. One use is all that it was made for. No metal can withstand multiple uses of the stones. I am unaware of the condition it is currently in, but Eitri agreed that it will not hold fast if the stones are used yet again."

"So what!" Tony exclaimed. "We make another gauntlet, transfer the stones to the new one and then use it."

"We will just have to figure out a way as to how the original gauntlet harnesses the power of the stones." Bruce said thoughtfully, a few ideas running through his head and being dismissed immediately. He would have to brainstorm with Tony… and maybe even Shuri. That girl's knowledge and intelligence was way beyond him and perhaps even Tony's. Most definitely, even Tony's.

Shuri tutted and said disappointedly, "That's the problem with you guys. You don't listen, just jump to conclusions! He is obviously not done telling everything."

"You are obviously correct, my dear." Loki smiled and Thor groaned inwardly. Just what he needed – someone for Loki to mold!

Loki explained slowly, "The purpose of the gauntlet is not to harness the power of the stones, but to keep the stones together even after they have been used. You see, according to the celestials, the stones usually scatter once they have been used, but thanks to the gauntlet, they cannot move from their current location. Another purpose that it serves, is to absorb the exponential energy released by the stones. Any direct contact would immediately kill a person, anyone, even Thor, who you know to be far more powerful than any of you."

"Did you just compliment me?"

"Shut up, Thor!" Loki rolled his eyes at his brother's smug grin.

"How do we do this?" Bruce asked. "We went up against Thanos the last time and still we couldn't do anything to stop him."

"I'll go for the head this time." Thor muttered darkly and Loki frowned and asked, "What?" He thought that Thor had not fought against Thanos, had still been stuck somewhere in space with no form of travel to reach Midgard in time, but… what had actually happened? Loki asked as much and Thor explained the best he could. He told about getting rescued by the Guardians and then splitting up to get the Stormbreaker while the others went to safeguard the reality stone. Tony then told about the attack in New York with Steve and Natasha talking about the attack on Vision. The inventor talked about how he went with Dr. Strange to protect him and the time stone and ended up on Titan, where he met the other Guardians and how they all fought against Thanos, who had already obtained four of the six stones by then. He told of the exchange Strange had made – his life in exchange of the time stone and how he had seen the alternate timelines and said that they had only one in a million chance of actually winning this thing.

Steve then continued about reaching Wakanda and the fight that ensued as they tried to protect Vision from Thanos' minions and later Thanos himself. He told about Thor making an entry and going directly for the titan and Loki groaned. He looked at his brother and said, "Tell me you didn't."

"Uhh…"

"What are you talking about now?" Brunn asked.

"Well, you see, Val, my brother" Loki glared at Thor, "loses all sense when he is angry. He doesn't think logically and I assume that is what happened here."

Thor growled out, "He killed half of the Asgardians, Heimdall and you. Do not expect me to keep my cool in such a situation. I… I wanted him to see who killed him, wanted him to repent the day he entered our ship." Thor sighed and said in a defeated tone, "That was my mistake. He had the time stone with him and he reversed it all and managed to get the mind stone. It…it was my fault. I should have killed him when I had the chance."

"And Strange shouldn't have given him the time stone to save me." Tony gritted out, blaming himself for the ordeals they had to face.

"Or Gamora should not have told him the location of the soul stone to save me."

Loki sighed and said, "Or I should not have given him the space stone to save Thor. But… we did what we did and we cannot change it now." He looked at Thor, trying to communicate that he didn't blame his brother for what happened. Then he frowned and looked at the depressed Avengers, "Hold on a moment! You say that all of you fought against Thanos?"

"Yeah, Tony and the Guardians on Titan and us, here on Earth." Bruce answered.

"It doesn't make sense… it should…" Loki muttered to himself, "oh."

"Oh? What oh?"

"It should have been all of you fighting him together. That's… that's what was supposed to happen."

"What would have that achieved? We still lost!" Nebula said.

"Not you! Them!" Loki spread his hands out in frustration. "The Avengers! They should have fought Thanos together. That is what it had said!"

"You are making no sense, Loki."

"The reason you all are together!" Loki almost yelled, having worked himself up. All that he had lost just for the Avengers to throw it all away!

"You attacking us?" Bruce asked in confusion.

"No," Tony said, "The Avengers Initiative had been in play for longer. Fury approached me long before New York."

"It was because of the Tesseract." Clint told. "Fury had been working on the Avengers since the 80s, I think. The project got approved later, when Iron Man went against the terrorists. But then the Council rejected it when they didn't get along with Fury and wanted to keep Phase II to themselves."

"We read the files and then some." Natasha explained with a smirk at the others' expressions. While they had all discussed about this before, this was actually the first time either of them had told all they knew of the topic.

"So, why did it get approved in the first place?" Bruce asked.

"The Tesseract." Tony answered. "When dad had found the Tesseract, he and Aunt Peggy decided to keep a team dedicated to protect it. They didn't get far with that line of thinking because they created SHIELD. Even then, they did have a team dedicated to protect it, but it was Fury who wanted to bring in, and I quote, ' _a group of remarkable people, see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles we never could_.' It's one of those things that get stuck in your head. But yeah, Tesseract was the reason we were to be brought together. Reindeer games just happened to be the catalyst."

"Remarkable people?" Loki looked in distaste at the Avengers and shrugged. Midgardians were too easily impressed. He shook his head and said, "Well, yes, the Tesseract brought you all together. You see the space stone has varying properties and one of them is that it can show you the future…"

"Shouldn't that be the time stone?" Shuri interrupted but continued on her own, "But the time stone would show differing timelines and the space stone…"

"Would show the definite timeline." Tony smiled.

"How could space show time?" Rhodey asked.

"Time zones!" Scott exclaimed excitedly and mumbled something to himself about quantum realms and time fields.

"Time is different in different places, like it was faster in Sakaar but slower here."

"Exactly!" Tony agreed with Bruce, although he still didn't have much information on this Sakaar. "And the space stone, I believe, can be at different points in space at all times, which means it could possibly, in theory, see the effects of some decision taken at this point in time…"

"…because somewhere else in space would be years ahead!" Scott completed and the four grinned at each other.

Clint groaned and said, "We have way too many nerds on this team!"

"Who can still kick your ass, so shut it, white boy!" Shuri grinned as Natasha attempted to cover up her laugh.

"Yes, you all have basic knowledge of the space-time phenomena. Congratulations." Loki deadpanned, although he was secretly pleased that not all Midgardians were dull creatures. Perhaps, if they were not enemies-turned-reluctant-teammates, he could have gotten along with them.

"So, what did it show you? And _how_ could it show you?" Fandral asked.

"It could show what you needed to see – to know your next step." Clint said, remembering the soft whisperings of the Tesseract in his mind, all those years ago. "It used to show me my next target and it would show Dr. Selvig how to complete the machine he was making."

"Yes," Loki nodded, "the Tesseract is a neutral entity – not good, not bad, just there. It will show you the path, but what you do with it is completely your own choice. It would show you anything you asked of it, however, sometimes, if it deemed it important enough, the Tesseract could show you things that you didn't ask for but needed to know. I suppose that is what it did with me. Back then, I had wanted to know more about the Avengers. After all, it is better to know your enemy. So, it showed me beyond what Barton could ever tell me."

"But it didn't just show me the past and how you came to be, it also showed me glimpses of future. Probably so that I didn't kill any one of you accidently."

"You threw me off my building!"

"Well, yes, you survived, so all is well."

"What did it show you?" Steve asked suspiciously.

"That one day you all would be needed to go up against Thanos. That was initiative enough to not kill you. It didn't explain why or how, but I knew that only if all six of you stood up against Thanos, he would not stand a chance."

"What else, brother?"

Loki sighed and said with a small time, "When I was on Asgard, I would often visit the space stone in the vaults to try and make sense of the dreams that I had…"

"Ragnarok?" Thor asked with a frown, already knowing the answer.

"Yes," Loki frowned, thinking about those burdening days when even a bit of fire would remind him of the looming future. "That was when I started to understand why the six of you were significant to the stones."

"And why is that?"

"There are six stones, right?" Loki looked at each of the original Avenger and smirked, "And there are six of you. The Tesseract has led me to believe that somehow you six can counter the six stones put together, but only if you all work together, like the stones do. The Tesseract brought you all together because even it does not want what has happened. I do not know the details, I do not know the 'why' and the 'how', but I do know that the Tesseract is not wrong. If the six of you had not fought together this last time, then I can blame that for why Thanos was successful."

"Wow!" Scott whistled as everyone tried to digest the flood of new information.


	25. Chapter 25

**(A/N - Hi guys! This is a short one, focusing on Bruce/Hulk situation. I have just been thinking about the whole situation where Hulk refuses to come out. I hope you like it. I loved writing Loki and Bruce in this. Lemme know how y'all find it.)**

 ** _CHAPTER 25_**

Loki frowned as he looked at the heroes around him and wondered, not for the first time, if it had been such a great idea to tell the Avengers what the space stone had meant them for. He could see that they were taking it hard, if their downcast looks were anything to go by. It had been almost half an hour since the group had dispersed from the kitchen and now most sat in the main living room, except for the Avengers. The six of them had taken the news of their importance pretty hard. Well, it wasn't every day that one found out that they had the power to kill the tyrant titan, although they were very skeptical of it. Perhaps, it wasn't such a good idea. Then again, Loki had left it to them the last time and look where it got them all.

Tony was walking down the corridors aimlessly. It wasn't the news that had shaken him up but the fact that had the Avengers not broken up, they would have been able to defeat Thanos and none of this would have happened. Logically, he knew that that wouldn't have solved anything, but right now logic wasn't really welcomed. It was then that he heard a growling 'NO' from behind one of the doors that led outside the building. Curious, he peaked a look and saw a panting Bruce Banner glaring at the ground and somehow managing to look like a kicked puppy at the same time.

"You look a little green, buddy." Tony said, pointing to the receding green coloring on his friend's neck. Bruce rubbed at his neck furiously and threw a punch in the air in frustration.

"What's wrong?"

"Hulk." Bruce spat. "He won't listen to me!"

"Still not coming out to play?"

"He refuses to come. It's so… agrh!"

"Woah! Hey, let's take a walk, okay? Come on." Tony pulled the frustrated scientist along, away from the building. He could feel the anger, an almost tangible thing and yet the Hulk, who would have normally made an appearance at the smallest discomfort, stayed completely silent. It was quite puzzling. Tony had always been one for action, always the problem solver, so when they were a considerable distance away and Bruce was looking more and more morose by every passing second, Tony finally asked, "What's his problem?"

"Dunno." Banner kicked a pebble in front of him and stuck his hands in his pockets, looking very much like a brooding teenager. Tony was suddenly reminded of Peter and took a deep breath to ease the pain settling in his chest.

"He was fine on the spaceship when he fought Thanos and he was fine before that when he fought that giant dog/wolf on Asgard."

"Giant dog? You know what, not important." Tony mentally filed it away, intent on asking Brunnhilde the full story. She was one of the rudest people he had ever met but in her, he found a kindred spirit. He could most definitely relate to drinking away one's problems. Concentrating on his upset friend, he prodded, "So, why do you think he won't come out now? If he was fine before, he should be fine now too… unless… unless he doesn't want to go up against Thanos?"

Banner snorted, "Are you seriously suggesting that Hulk is scared?" When he realized that the glorified mechanic was being serious, he shook his head. "Hulk doesn't get scared. He comes out when _I_ get scared. No, it's something else entirely and until he comes out… how can we go up against Thanos if he doesn't?"

"I mean, if what Loki said is correct, even a little bit, then we need Hulk more than ever. It's because of Hulk that Fury even included me in this thing. If we don't have Hulk…"

Bruce shook his head and walked ahead as Tony stopped and stared at nothing in particular. A slow smile spread on his face as Tony looked up and yelled, "That's it!"

"Huh?"

Tony impatiently snapped his fingers and said, "When you lot were telling stories about Sakaar or whatever… Brunn mentioned over and over again how Hulk was this amazing, popular guy."

"So?"

"So?" Tony grinned. "So, Hulk got used to that. I mean it is obvious now. Hulk must have liked that planet because the people were crazy about him. What if he hates Earth for the same reasons?"

"Nobody likes him on Earth." Bruce said with a nod.

Tony shook his head, "Not nobody, Doc. _You_ particularly don't like him. On that planet, you weren't in control, right? He could do as he wished. But here, you are in control. Maybe that is why he doesn't want to show himself."

Bruce frowned and Tony continued, "Remember what I told you about my arc reactor? It was a terrible privilege… but a privilege nonetheless. Bruce, Hulk is like that. Whether you like it or not, he is a part of you, a large part of you. He is the sole reason you are still alive."

"My stupidity is the reason that I required saving in the first place."

Tony shrugged and said, "And my irresponsibility was mine, but it is all in the past now. You can't think about why and how. We don't have the time." Tony looked at the ground and then back up at his friend. "I hated the arc reactor. It was a necessity. I was going to die without it, so I made my peace with it. Turned it into one of my greatest achievements. You can either shun the Hulk or accept him. Either way, you are stuck with him forever. All these years, you have ran from him, you have been scared of him and where did it get you? Still scared, after all these years. Maybe, it is time to accept him. He is a person after all. Don't think he likes being used as a weapon, being brought out only when required. And who better to know the feeling than you?"

Tony smiled and turned around and walked back to the building, leaving Bruce to deal with his internal crisis. He could only tell Bruce. What was done with the information, was entirely on the scientist.

Banner sighed as he watched Tony disappear inside the building. What Tony had said had made some sense and how much ever he wanted to stay away from the other guy, he hadn't made any actual development in that area. But making peace with the guy? How? How do you make peace with the monster inside of you? He was a scientist. He needed facts and proofs. How could he let Hulk loose without knowing if the green monster would not go on a killing rampage?

A small, gruff voice that sounded a lot like a petulant Hulk, reminded him that he had made peace with a proven murderer – Loki. And if he could do that, then what was stopping him from actually accepting the other guy?

Loki! That's it!

To say Loki was surprised when Bruce Banner sought him out, would be an understatement. He had been lounging on one of the outdoor benches in search of some peace and quiet when he had spotted the scientist making his nervous way to Loki. He hadn't said anything, letting the man steer the upcoming conversation in whatever way he wanted it to go.

Banner bit his cheek and wondered whether his impromptu decision of seeking Loki out was sane or not. Sure, on the Statesman, it had been alright to talk to the alien prince. It had been easier there to concentrate only on the recent events and the Revengers (however silly that name sounded), rather than the New York battle. It had been easy to let the image of grumpy but weirdly caring Loki slide in front of the angry and deranged alien who had attacked them all. It was not so easy now. Here, on Earth, where it all had started, he could only see the monster who had attacked them, who had so easily brought out the other guy from under Banner's careful watch.

An elegant eyebrow made its way towards Loki's hairline and Bruce asked before he could lose his conviction, "If I ask something, promise not to kill me?"

"Depends on the question."

"It's somewhat… no, actually it is personal." Bruce managed to say and added, "Might get you angry."

"I'm not the one who turns into a giant green monster when faced with anger."

"No, but you can turn into a blue one, right?" Bruce's eyes widened and he added, "Not that your species is a monster species. I didn't mean tha…"

"Stop talking." Loki gritted his teeth and said, "Give me a reason to not kill you on the spot."

"You need the Hulk to defeat Thanos?"

"Fair enough." Loki conceded and looked the scientist up and down. "What was the question? Now please, before I decide that you are not important enough."

"It relates to your other self…"

"Excuse me?"

"Your… umm… bluer self?" Bruce grinned sheepishly and Loki rubbed his forehead. Perhaps, he should have slept in.

"I am probably going to regret this, but please elaborate."

"Right. Elaborate. Okay." Bruce wrung his hands together and paced in front of Loki. He stopped and opened his mouth a couple of times, trying to get the words out but stopped himself each time. Finally, having come up with a proper sentence, he said, "Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to insult you or god forbid, provoke you, but I really need to know this."

Loki frowned as Bruce continued, "You see, while we were on the Statesman, the other Asgardians taught me about the realms and the species residing in the realms. That was how I came to know about your people…"

"My people are the Asgardians."

"Right. I mean… your birth people? Jotunns?"

"Jotnar. That is the correct term."

Loki seemed a bit tense but as long as he wasn't actively attacking him, Bruce considered it a win and continued, "So, yeah, them. Well, the others would tell stories about how they are this violent species…"

"Monsters. That would be the term used."

"Right." Bruce could feel the sweat trickling down the back of his neck and he wondered if he just turned and walked away, would Loki forget this ever happened. "Yeah. Umm… I cannot even imagine what you must have gone through when you came to know of your origin."

"Is this going anywhere or are you really trying to make me angry?" Loki squinted his eyes and added, "Because you are succeeding."

"No, no, no. Nobody's trying to make you angry. I mean this is not even about you." At Loki's incredulous look, the scientist added, "Well, it is a little about you. But it is mainly about… no that too is about you. But in the context of helping me."

"I do not follow."

"Nor do I," Bruce muttered. He sighed and sat down on the same bench as Loki, leaving as much space as possible between the two of them. Resting his elbows on his knees, Bruce said, "I know I'm not making much or even any sense, but I honestly could not think of anyone else who could be of little help. They try to understand but they cannot. Maybe… maybe you can."

"It is easy to deduce that if all Asgardians considered the jotunns – jotnar, sorry, if they considered the jotnar monsters, then perhaps you did too. And I am not saying that they are correct or anything. I mean I don't even know anything about the species to pass judgement. So, yeah. But what I am saying is that you would have considered yourself a monster and somehow I feel that now you don't."

"Whatever gave that away?"

"Well, for starters, I am still alive." Loki shrugged in acknowledgement and Bruce observed, "And you seem more at ease with yourself than the last time we saw you."

"The point is that I want to know how that happened. I mean it is no secret that I don't really like the other guy."

"Yes, the lack of using his proper name is a dead giveaway."

"Yes, it is. I'm sure you know how he came to be and all that." Loki nodded. "Well, then you know that he comes out whenever I am angry, except, now he doesn't. Ever since that fight on Statesman, he refused to come out and Tony says that I should make my peace with him and I don't know how to go about that. I mean I have never even thought of doing something like that. Ever. I am only asking you because I know you overcame something similar. Except that, well, the jotunn is actually you, unlike the Hulk."

Loki was quiet for a long time, which in truth, made Bruce nervous. He considered giving up and walking away when Loki said, "So, you want to know how I made my peace with my being of a different species than my peers?"

"Yes."

"You do understand that it took me a decade to come to that conclusion. A decade that included trying to kill myself, being captured and tortured, trying to kill my brother, isolation, multiple near death situations and going through the death of my parents to reach this very stage."

"Yes?" Bruce sighed and said, "Look, I know the circumstances are different. You were trying to come to peace with yourself and I am trying to come to peace with this monster inside of me."

"Who said that he is not you?"

"Excuse me?"

"Did somebody tell you specifically that Hulk is a separate person? I do not think so and even if they did, they were wrong. He is not a separate person. He is very much a part of you and not just because he resides in your mind."

"Meaning?"

"I think that the Hulk is the physical representation of your anger." Loki leaned against the wall behind him and said, "I am not a healer of the mind but I did attend a few preliminary classes. There was this really beautiful Vanir… not that it is any of your business, but the point is that I know a few things about the injuries that a mind can sustain. One of them being dealing with aggressive emotions. Knowing your childhood, it is not hard to guess that you would have trouble with expressing anger because you would not know where to stop. Or rather, you would be afraid that you would not know when to stop, would lose yourself in it. Like your father."

Bruce closed his eyes, his anger increasing second by second, except when it reached the threshold when Hulk would come roaring out, the other guy just pushed it all back. That was like a bucket of cold water being poured all over him and Bruce sighed and settled for clenching his fists and wondering exactly how Loki knew about his history.

Loki ignored Bruce's palpable anger and continued with his theory, "You want to know what I think happened? I think that when your experimentation went wrong, the gamma rays somehow managed to separate the anger from you and turned it into a real person. The Hulk is a part of you because he is you. He is your anger. That is why whenever you get angry, he comes out, because…"

"He is my anger."

"Yes."

"So, what do I do? How do I go about making peace with him? With myself?"

"You cannot." Loki said nonchalantly. "It is a lengthy process and we do not have time for that."

"Then what am I supposed to do? The Hulk is part of the Avengers. You said that we need the six of us to go up against Thanos. Without Hulk, how are we to do that?"

"I literally just told you that Hulk is you. If Hulk is a part of Avengers then so are you."

"Because we are the same."

"Precisely. However, with that being said, it is also true that Hulk's superior strength is one of the biggest asset this team has."

"Then how do we go on if he is being difficult?" Bruce stood up and started pacing again. "Tony said that Hulk must have liked Sakaar better than Earth."

"Well, he was quite popular there and well loved. Even if it was by a deranged celestial and his equally deranged subjects. But it was all he knew so you cannot…" Loki trailed off, frowning in the distance. "Hulk kind of liked being part of the Revengers. Right?"

"Yeah, I suppose. I mean, I don't always remember the things that Hulk does."

"Why was that?"

"Why I don't remember…"

"No! Why did he like the Revengers better?" Loki growled and muttered, "Great! Now, I am calling us that! Despicable!"

"I guess because Brunn made him comfortable? Plus, it's not like Revengers had any issues with beating the crap out of people."

"That is true. We are a violent species and the other Asgardians did also take a liking to Hulk. The point is that Hulk was comfortable because no one on the team minded him."

"Except you."

"I am still undecided if I am actually on the team or not."

"Thor wants you to be."

"Thor wants a lot of things. It is my responsibility to ensure that he does not get them all. It will go to his head otherwise." Loki smirked at that and continued, "Anyway, back to the Hulk. I think the key might be to get him to understand that the Avengers appreciate him as much as the Revengers did."

"Barring you."

"Barring me."

"So that will work?"

"I do not know but people are generally more comfortable working with those who appreciate them."

"Something of a life lesson?"

"Common sense actually." Loki paused and shrugged. "Now run along before my patience does."

"Right." Bruce smiled a little at Loki. Maybe Thor was right. Maybe the Loki he knew was still there somewhere. Ducking his head, Bruce murmured, "Thank you." At the twitch of Loki's lips, he knew that he had been heard.

Loki couldn't help himself as the smile grew on his face. It had been so long since he had helped anyone with his suggestions. He had forgotten how good it felt to do something like that. Normally, he only advised Thor but on occasion, his mother would insist on him helping out the councilors and he used to love those days. He settled back, watching a line of ants crawl around and tried to control his smile. He had to keep up appearances after all.

"That was nice of you."

So much for keeping up appearances. Loki groaned internally as he watched Val sit down next to him and give him a surprised smile.

"I can be nice."

"Name one time."

"You weren't there."

Brunn snorted and looked at Loki. "Why'd you help him?"

"You'd rather that I didn't?"

"That's not what I meant."

"That's what you are going to get."

"You are impossible, you know."

"Takes one to know one, I suppose."

Brunn shrugged and said, "I didn't know you were jotun."

"It is not something I advertise." Eager to change the topic, Loki asked, "Explain something to me. Why are the Asgardians on Vanaheimr? I thought Thor wanted to settle down here on Midgard."

"He did. Still does. But we got separated, remember? Before you went and died?" Brunn sighed and told him the entire story of how they ended up in the realm of dark elves and how they managed to survive and reach Vanaheimr. By the time she finished her tale, Loki was frowning.

"That should not… how did you end up in Svartalfheim?"

"Weren't you listening? There was a portal that pulled us in…"

"The gravitational portal should have brought you to Midgard, not Svartalfheim."

Brunn watched the emotions flitting across Loki's face and announced, "You created the portal!"

"Yes," Loki was still frowning, "and I was making sure that it went to Midgard. How would it even…?"

"Why? Why did you create the portal?"

"Well, Thor was busy fighting and I took the chance to see if you all had managed to escape." Loki drummed his fingers on his thigh and continued, "I already told you that the space stone sometimes shows the future when needed."

"Yes."

"Well, I have a better relationship with it and as a result it shows me more of the future. Helps me out a lot. That was how I knew that the escape pods would never make it out of the area. So, I created the gravitational portal, so that even if something happened, the pods would still be pulled in by the force and it would deposit you all near this place where the Allfather had lived out the past few years of his life. It was a nice place. Suitable for Asgardians, I suppose."

"Then why didn't we?"

"I don't know. Those portals are hard to maintain, especially if you are trying to transport a lot."

"That's what Eda said."

"But I am no ordinary sorcerer." Loki said smugly. "I could maintain it, but I needed to continuously focus on the location, which was why I kept on talking to Thanos about Midgard. As long as Midgard was in the forefront of my thoughts, the portal would take you to Midgard." Loki straightened and asked, "When did you go through the portals?"

"I don't know. We all were knocked out from the aftershocks of Statesman destruction. Why?"

The prince groaned and nodded. "That makes sense. I was dead by then. When Thanos was killing me, I think I started to subconsciously think about the last time I died, which so happened to be on…"

"Svartalfheim."

"Exactly." Loki shook his head and said, "Since that was my last thought, the portal would have locked in on that."

"Why did you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Make the portal. Get us out of there."

"Would you prefer if I hadn't?"

"I would prefer if you just admitted that you cared. It is not that bad." Brunn smiled, thinking about the Asgardians that had weirdly become something like family to her.

"I don't care."

Brunn scoffed, "Really? Could have fooled me. Come on! You do care. You came back to Asgard to save it from Hela. You know you didn't have to do that. If you didn't care, you would have just left. You had a spaceship and a crew. You could have gone anywhere."

"I came because… Thor was being an idiot. I was trying to hint him to not rush into things but does he ever listen to me? No!" The words sounded flimsy to even Loki and he groaned when Brunn just laughed at his explanation.

"For someone who is nicknamed the 'god of lies', you are not all that good at it." Brunn smiled. "You are good at evading, I'll give you that. Just not at lying." She stood up and got ready to walk away. "You know it's not really horrible to admit that you care about something or someone. Gives you a reason to fight. Trust me, I know from experience."

"Brunnhilde," Loki called out when the warrior had started to walk away, "contrary to popular belief, I do take my princely duties seriously. I do not need to admit anything to need a reason to fight. Asgard is my reason to fight. Has always been. Most of the things that I have done are because I believed them to be the right things for Asgard. Whether they truly turned out that way or not…"

Brunn turned back and smiled genuinely at Loki. Tilting her head in the semblance of a bow, she said softly, "Your Highness," and walked away, leaving Loki to stare after her.

It had been nearly a decade since he had heard his proper title and Loki didn't even try to stop the traitorous grin that graced his face. He knew that after the Odin-Hela fiasco, Brunn didn't dole out titles just because of blood. She had only called Thor by his proper address because he had gone to save his people despite not knowing whether he would return alive. So it was quite an achievement if he got her to defer to his title. Maybe the day wasn't that bad after all.


	26. Chapter 26

**(A/N - Hey guys! First of all, thanks to all you wonderful readers who are commenting and/or favoriting the story! You guys make my day :D**

 **Moving on to the chapter, it was supposed to further the plot, but instead I remembered that I have been waiting since forever to write a solo scene between Loki and Clint and Loki and the kids, so here it is. Gosh! I love writing Loki and kids. I don't know if it turned out good but it was all very clear in my head. Also, the beginning scene in Tony's lab is inspired from real life pre-exam situation in my hostel.**

 **Anyway, enjoy the chapter and don't forget to comment! :D )**

 ** _CHAPTER 26_**

Tony gulped down what had to be his hundredth cup of coffee spiked with Red Bull. His hands had started to shake again and his eyes were burning. His vision was once again blurry as he tried to make sense of the notes he had made only a few hours back. His trembling hands straightened out the papers in front of him and he bent closer to the papers in hopes of understanding his own scribblings. Why were they blurred? A short snore tore through his hazy mind and he whipped around only to find both Bruce and Scott sleeping. Bruce was draped over his workstation and Scott was lying on the floor, clutching some papers to his chest. He looked around once again. Both Shuri and Rocket were missing while Nebula looked like she was in a trance as she stared at one of the computer screens.

The automatic doors slid open with a hiss and in came Pepper, looking formidable in just her pajamas. Tony aimed a smile at her but somehow his facial muscles refused to obey his command and it ended up being just a twitch on his face. The blond shook her head at the state of the lab and bent down to poke at Scott's side till he woke with a start. She then wordlessly moved to wake Bruce up while Tony just continued staring at her in a mix of confusion and wonderment.

"Pep," Tony breathed out as his fiancé stood in front of him. She sighed and said softly, "Come on, let's go to bed. You have been awake for almost 48 hours."

"I feel fiiine. Is it just me or is it too hot in here? Friday, temperature control…"

Pepper rolled her eyes and took his hand to drag him out of the lab, motioning to the others to leave already and watched as Nebula helped both Bruce and Scott out. It took Tony a few precious moments to realize that he was being kicked out of his own lab.

"My specs…"

"Will still be here tomorrow. Now come on."

They were halfway to their room when Pepper almost crashed into Loki. Handling a hyper active Tony while he was also going through side effects of consuming too much caffeine and navigating the corridors was not as easy as she made it look. Looking up at the pale prince, she instinctively took a step back, bumping into an absent minded Tony.

It had been two whole days since Loki had stopped them from having a funeral for Gamora and one day since he was allowed to see the families, although they made sure that none of the children ever found their way to the once adversary. Pepper had made sure that she too stayed out of his way, but what little she had seen of him, didn't strike her as evil. Still, it was hard to not panic when faced with the brooding Odinson.

Sensing her discomfort, Tony moved in front of her, an action that made Loki raise his brow in annoyance. It wasn't like he was going to attack her or something. He only wanted a bit of walk and water. "Woah! Reindeer games, what brings you out here?"

Loki narrowed his eyes at Tony's bloodshot ones and looked around him to ask Pepper, "Is he drunk?"

"No…n-not drunk. Just too much caffeine."

"There's no such thing as too much caffeine."

Loki sighed and moved out of their way. "I think you should retire for the night, Stark."

Tony mumbled something that neither of his companions heard and then turned around to look at Loki's back. "Hey! Loki! The specs… they… something is missing in that or…"

"Later, Tony." Pepper huffed and dragged Tony away.

Loki shook his head and made his way to the kitchen, swinging his bottle. Well, Thor's Captain America bottle, but who cared. He looked around the semi-dark hallway. From what he could tell, there were lights placed equidistant from each other, reminding him of the various torches and floating balls of lights they had back at home. Which was now gone forever. His throat closed up as he thought about the long, gilded hallways of the palace. While the hallways did remind him of the various injustices he had had to face back on Asgard, it was still the only home he knew and he loved the place no matter what had happened to him over there. He had always fantasized about burning down Asgard, but he never really wanted it and that could not have been any clearer than it was in the moment he saw the planet blow up as Surtur plunged his sword in the ground. A spectacular end to a spectacular realm.

Removing the morbid thoughts from his head, he entered the unlit pantry on their floor. While the main kitchen was on the ground floor, each floor was equipped with a fully stocked pantry. Loki still didn't understand the need for it, not that he was complaining. He was used to such luxuries, but what use did the humans have for it? They weren't even that many of them living in these quarters. Still, the pantry was a welcome distraction from all the planning sessions that the Avengers were having.

Two days ago, when the Avengers had come to terms with all the information that he had suddenly piled up on them, Loki had given them the specifications regarding the gauntlet that Eitri had made for Thanos. It would have been way easier to just let the dwarf king come and finish off the new gauntlet, but Eitri had refused to move from his planet and vehemently protested against making a new gauntlet. Loki had then offered to transport him wherever he wanted and Eitri had finally decided to move to Alfheim as the Light Elves were far more appreciative of his talents than any other realm. Now, thinking about Rabbit, Tony and Shuri, Loki wondered whether he should introduce Eitri to them, if they all managed to survive the upcoming battle.

Coming to a stop in front of the water cooler, Loki frowned at the various buttons on the thing. Why would a simple water container need so many buttons? Till now he had always just made the water appear from thin air, if only to irritate the humans around him, but this was the first time he had actually come to physically fill it.

"It's the blue one."

Loki whirled around, eyes squinting at the darkness in front of him. He relaxed when he saw the silhouette of a man sitting on the small table that was kept in the pantry. He flicked the light switch on and saw Clint staring at him, his body tense even while his hands played with the spoon and the bowl in front of him. For a moment Loki wondered whether Clint would throw the bowl at him, then shrugged and turned back to fill up the bottle.

"Never done this before?"

"Fill up water? No," Loki turned to look at Clint and gestured with one hand as green sparks floated around the digits, "I have easier methods. Moreover, this looks far complicated than what should be required."

"That's because Tony made it, so it doesn't just have water. It… has a lot of other functions too." Clint rolled his eyes as Loki turned his attention back to his task. Spooning some ice cream, he wondered if he was alright. Why was he making small talk with the man who mentally tortured him and haunted his every waking moment for years? Throwing caution to wind, he asked, "Why are you doing it now? If you have easier methods?"

"Needed the walk." Loki turned around completely and casually leaned against the wall next to him.

"Couldn't sleep?"

"Obviously, you have never shared a room with Thor." Loki sighed and said, "He snores."

"Couldn't hear him."

"Sound proofed the room."

Clint followed Loki with his eyes as the prince crossed the room to open the fridge and took out a half-eaten piece of pie. He could almost imagine Loki as any other random person just having a midnight snack. "Don't tell me, you are the one who has been finishing all the apple pies."

Loki shrugged and pointed to the chair opposite Clint with a questioning look. Clint pushed the chair with his leg and muttered, "Apparently you are not evil anymore." When Loki sat down, he added, "Don't expect me to be civil to you."

"Wasn't counting on it."

"You are picking up the slang faster than Thor. He was walking around spouting Shakespearean English for far too long."

"I'm a quick study."

"That apply to torture too?"

Loki spared him a look and went about scooping up a small bite of the pie he had left unfinished after dinner. He could feel the tense atmosphere and said, "What I did to you was inexcusable but I was not lying when I said that if I had to do it again, I would. That was the only method available to me at that point and I cannot make myself regret something that eventually saved my life."

"Really?" Clint leaned back in his chair and stared at Loki. "You could have left. You had the mind stone with you. You could have reversed whatever damage they did you and be free, but instead you attacked us. Why?"

"You have obviously thought about this." Loki noted. "Truthfully? I did know how to use the mind stone beyond controlling others. I did not even know how to break the control on others, let alone myself. It is a good thing that beating someone to unconsciousness actually works. Although, it does make sense." Loki shrugged and added, "You cannot make someone do something that they would not do otherwise."

"Are you saying that I wanted to hurt those…"

"No, you mistook my words, Agent Barton. I simply meant that you cannot alter someone's fundamental instincts and survival instinct is on top of that list. No being is averse to killing, only the threshold for such an action varies from being to being. However, protecting oneself from danger is one of the fundamentals that we are built on and even the influence of any stone, including the mind stone, cannot change that. Barring harm to self, there is little that a being cannot be made to do."

Clint stared at Loki and asked, "I am not questioning what happened back then. Not anymore. You had some twisted reasons, but now? What's your play here?"

"Pardon?"

The archer fiddled with his spoon before spitting out, "As loathe as I am to admit this, I do know you better than the other Avengers, other than Thor of course."

"Of course."

"So I know that you don't do squat unless you have something to gain. So why are you helping us now? What do you have to gain?"

"Revenge."

Pushing back his chair, Clint rose and put the ice cream bowl back in the freezer. As he walked out, he turned to Loki and said, "Somehow, I don't think you are telling the truth. The whole truth anyway."

"Believe what you must."

Loki waited till the agent had disappeared around the bend in the hallway and then switched off the lights with a flick of his wrist. He preferred to sit in the dark for the time being. His thoughts revolved around the strange encounter with the archer and he wondered whether the archer was really being a bit social. He knew that he wasn't in any position to ask for forgiveness, not that he wanted it in the first place. But he knew how the man must be feeling seeing him roam so freely. After all, he too felt the same way when he laid his eyes upon Nebula but desperate times called for desperate measures and he could see the benefits of using Nebula to defeat Thanos, just like he was sure the Avengers saw the benefits of using him. He didn't care about that. As long as Thanos didn't survive this whole thing, he was willing to go to extreme lengths.

So lost in his own thoughts that he almost didn't notice the group of six tiptoeing into the pantry. Almost. It were the giggles that really alerted him to their presence. He raised an amused brow at the six children who were beaming with excitement as they walked into the pantry. He smiled a little thinking back to his childhood, or rather most nights with Thor, when he and his brother, sometimes accompanied by Thor's friends, would break into the royal kitchens in search for some leftover desserts and mead. Even after centuries of doing the same thing, they still made a game out of it each time they attempted something like that. A pang of sadness left him reeling as he realized that he would never be able to do something like that again. Not that he was expecting to do such things during his stint in the dungeons, but then again, he wasn't really in his best form at that time. Now, he could not stop thinking about all the things that he and Thor would never get to do and really, it was their sister's fault. Why could she not just be a normal person? Then again, his mother was really the only sane member of their family.

Harley rolled his eyes at the girls' excitement and felt around for the light switch, not really registering the man sitting at the table in front of them. It was after a few moments of getting their eyes adjusted to the sudden onslaught of bright light that they all finally saw an amused Loki looking at them.

"Oh shit!" Cooper muttered under his breath and Harley wanted to congratulate his new friend on eloquently putting their thoughts into words. Except, he was still occupied with staring at the stranger in front of them. Where was his Taser when he needed it?

"You are n't s'pose to say that!" Nate hissed at his brother and Harley looked at the preschooler and then back at a still amused Loki and muttered, "Oh crap!"

Loki pressed his lips together in an attempt to not laugh at the shocked expressions on the children's faces. It was a losing battle so he promptly shoved a spoonful of pie in his mouth and waited for the children to make a move. He did always like the company of children. They were a far simpler and yet intriguing people than grown-ups.

Cassie spied the Captain America bottle and blurted without thinking, "You have a Captain America bottle?"

"It is my brother's."

"Thor has a Captain America bottle?"

"And Iron Man trousers." Loki offered with a harmless smile, the one he reserved just for putting children at ease. It worked wonders on Asgard and it had the same effect here on Midgard. All children except the one who had switched on the lights seemed to be at a little more ease than before.

"You are Loki." Harley said accusingly, remembering how Tony used to get bad flashbacks about New York and how scared Harley had been after seeing his hero in that situation, not that he would ever tell the mechanic that.

"That I am."

"Thor's brother." Cassie said, bravely walking further into the pantry.

Loki sighed and nodded. Looked like that was never going away. Instead, he asked, "You like him?"

"He's alright." Cassie continued proudly, "My dad is the best. He is Ant Man."

Loki raised his eyebrow skeptically and asked, "Talking to ants is better than summoning lightening?" He mentally shrugged. All children would obviously consider their parent to be the best. He had made the same mistake after all.

Cassie folded her arms and said confidently, "He can also become big or small if he wants to and he gave me two giant ants." She stuck her chin up as if daring him to do better than that and he almost laughed at the pose she struck.

Loki smirked and confided, "Our father once gave Thor and me two giant goats."

"You have giant goats?" Lila asked incredulously.

"Had." Loki sighed. "We lost them… on purpose. You see, we didn't want goats. We wanted a pet dragon."

Jo scoffed and said, "Dragons don't exist."

"Dragons, elves, dwarves… well only one dwarf now… but they all exist. Just not on Earth." Loki smiled in victory as the children scooted closer to him. As they settled down on the chairs and Harley and Lila went to the refrigerator, Loki asked, "So, should you all not be in bed? Do your parents even know you are here?"

Cassie shrugged and answered, "We were having a sleepover in Jo and Harley's room and then we wanted ice cream."

Loki nodded slowly and looked at a yawning Nate and said, "He is too young to be included in your exploits."

"He goes everywhere we go." Cooper said.

"You are the Barton children."

"Yeah," Lila answered, "and you hurt our dad."

Loki smiled sadly at the three children, although the youngest was still too young to understand and he found that he could be honest with them. They were children after all. "I did not mean to hurt your father. Or anyone else really."

"Then why did you?" Harley asked as he brought spoons for everyone. He was the eldest in their group and he had taken all of their responsibility on his head.

Loki pondered on it for some time and then said, "Sometimes we have to do bad things to make sure that something worse does not happen. It does not mean that we want to do those things, but sometimes we have to."

"That," Cooper pointed his spoon at Loki, "explains absolutely nothing."

"No, I suppose it does not."

"So," Cassie dragged the word, "You didn't want to do it?"

"No, I cannot say that I wanted to."

"Okay." Lila said, squinting at Loki but then deciding that he was being honest. Aunt Nat had taught her how to read lies.

"Hey, so is Thor happy now?" Jo asked randomly.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, it's just that we don't get to see him all that often now a days and before he was really upset because he thought he lost you, so… is he happy now?"

"I think he is."

"Did you like the locket we gave him?" Lila asked. "It had your hair in it, which is really weird, but…" She shrugged as she wiped Nate's face, where he had already managed to spread ice cream.

Loki smiled at the children and said gratefully, "Well then I must be thanking you all for taking care of my brother when he was upset."

"Is it true that you can do magic?" Cassie asked, suddenly remembering something that her dad had mentioned in passing.

The prince smiled brightly. He loved showing off to the children. "Yes, I can. Would you like to see something in particular?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the children came up with various requests and Loki happily entertained them till Nate finally ran out of energy and excitement at the shiny sparkle of magic and slept on the table. In an instant Loki cocooned the child in blankets and placed him on a small cot that appeared out of thin air. The others were still interested in seeing more magic.

"You mentioned something about giant ants, didn't you Cassie?" In the midst of all the magic entertainment, the children had gotten around to introducing themselves.

"Yes."

"Would you like them to be here?"

"Can you get them here?" Cassie asked excitedly. She had really been missing her ants.

"If you can tell me exactly where they are, then I can bring them here." He patiently listened as she told him her address and watched in amazement as he created a portal and ushered her to bring her pets along. Soon enough, the small pantry housed two giant ants.

"Do you like ice cream?" Cassie asked Loki as she fed ice cream to the ants. They had moved on from magic tricks to discussing and educating Loki on music and movies and their favorite food items. By now all of the children had warmed up to him.

"Everyone likes ice cream." Jo answered.

"Actually, we do not have ice cream on Asgard, so I do not know what it is."

The children looked scandalized at his answer and Lila hurriedly shoved the half empty ice cream tub in front of the god. "Try it. It's amazing." Once Loki had skeptically tasted a little, she asked, "So? How is it? Did you like it? The first time Nate had ice cream, he got a cold."

"Will you get a cold?" Cassie asked with a frown.

"No, I will not. The planet I was born on is a very cold planet. I am mostly immune to cold." Loki said nonchalantly. He found it way easier to let go of his adoptive status in front of the children. "And the ice cream is good."

"Of course it is good. Here, have some." Lila offered and they all continued on the topic of food and then moved on to stories from Loki's childhood. It wasn't until later on when the children were looking visibly worn out but definitely interested in his stories that Loki promised them that he would continue later on if they all went to bed immediately.

"Here, let me." He gently picked up the sleeping Nate and cleared up the mess that the children had made in the pantry, with a flick of his hand. They silently walked back to Harley and Jo's room where blankets and pillows were strewn everywhere.

A few minutes later, Loki found himself tucking Cassie in her bed. He didn't know how he ended up in this position but he wasn't complaining. He had settled Nate in between his siblings and the two ants had taken up one of the corners of the room. Looking at the other children, who were still awake and watching his every move, he said softly, "Go to sleep."

"Loki?"

The god turned around from where he was about to switch off the lights. He looked at Cassie questioningly and she said, "I'm sorry."

"About what?"

"About your home and your dad. Thor was really upset about it all and you must be too."

"I'm sorry too." Harley said and the others nodded in agreement.

Loki felt something tickle the back of his throat. No one had ever expressed or acknowledged that he too had lost something in all that had happened. He managed a weak but genuine smile and said, "Thank you, children. Now, go to sleep."

The young god softly shut the door and almost walked into Thor. His brother's expression was unreadable and that worried him greatly, but he still looked at Thor questioningly.

"You were not in the room." Thor offered in explanation. He had heard, of course he had. How could he have not realized that Loki, for all that he tried not to, still suffered from the loss of his home and family, same as Thor did? Not having any words to express himself, he just drew Loki into a tight hug. He let go of Loki and said, "I have been blind to a lot of things. Even mere children could pick up on your melancholy."

"Well," Loki shrugged and started to walk away from the uncomfortable situation, "you only have one eye."

Thor shook his head and followed his brother. If nothing else, he at least knew when his brother was in no mood to talk about something and right now he knew that Loki wished that they did not talk about it. Well, what Loki wanted, Loki usually got.


	27. Chapter 27

**(A/N - It's been quite some time since I posted, but I got stuck writing this chapter, so... Anyway, thanks for all your support guys! I honestly never thought that this story would get so many reads, but I'm soooo happy :D )**

 ** _CHAPTER 27_**

"LOKI!"

The god pretended to not have heard his name being called out in what seemed to be, anger. Anyway, the artificial intelligence operating the place would notify the Avengers as to his whereabouts. He tried to find some peace and quiet before a pack of angry Avengers descended upon him like a pack of hungry wolves. He inhaled deeply just as footsteps crunched the gravel somewhere to his side. Break time was over.

The first one to speak was a red faced, fuming Clint Barton. "How dare you?"

"Very easily." Loki answered smugly as Thor face palmed and he made himself comfortable on the soft grass of the lawn he was lounging on. He couldn't really resist replying, now could he? It was too good an opportunity to give up.

"When …?"

"Last night. They are quite delightful." Loki added under his breath, "Unlike their parents."

"Stay away from the children!"

"How did you even get the ants here?" Scott looked at the others as they all looked at him incredulously. He shrugged and said, "It's important, okay?"

But it was really Laura Barton, who caught Loki's attention with, "You let them have ice cream before bed?!"

"Excuse me?"

"They are not supposed to have ice cream before bed!"

"Honey, that's not really the issue here…" Clint trailed off as his wife turned to glare at him.

"I will keep that in mind."

"No, you won't!" Clint gritted out while Laura said simultaneously, "You better."

"He will not be meeting with the kids. At all!"

Loki rolled his eyes and got up from the ground where he had been lounging. "Are the children in any way, harmed?"

Clint stalked close to Loki and spat out, "I don't care if they have not been harmed. I will not have you close to my children and that is final! I let you roam around here. That should be more than enough."

"Then perhaps, you should tell your children that." Loki nodded towards the children who had crept up on them, and walked away, trying to find another place where he could lounge in peace and think further about his plan of action.

It took the children about an hour of groveling, pouting, emotional blackmailing and puppy dog eyes to convince their parents/guardians to let them mingle with Loki.

"Think this'll work?" Scott asked nervously as he crouched behind a desk and peeped over the top to see Tony fiddling with the red and gold gauntlet he had completed only hours before. A part of him wondered why everything that Tony created was red and gold. Did the guy not like any other color scheme? Personally, Scott found it a bit gaudy, but then that was just his opinion.

"Hopefully." Bruce said as he performed some last minute checks on the programs set to capture the gauntlet's reaction during their test run. Creating the gauntlet was the easy part, making sure it actually was strong enough to hold on to the stones, now that was tricky. The younger prince had informed them that the only way the gauntlet would ever be powerful enough to handle the stones was if it had been forged using a dying star and since Eitri had refused to help them out and they had no way of using a dying star (how did one even use that?), Loki had proposed that he and Thor push as much of their power as possible into the gauntlet and see if it still stood after it. This was their first test and honestly, Bruce wasn't all that optimistic. So much of their work was based on theorizing that none of it seemed possible and Loki, with all his skeptical looks, wasn't exactly the picture of confidence.

"Everyone ready?" Tony asked as he walked backwards to the red painted line and stood just behind it next to Shuri and her computer. Both of them let their suits cover them, Tony in his updated Iron Man suit and Shuri in a modified Black Panther suit.

Shuri looked around and nodded as she pressed a button on the screen. "The shields are up." As she said that, all around the perimeter, along the red line painted on the floor, a blue force field went up, covering the entire room, ceiling to floor. Everyone except Thor and Loki were behind the shield and hoping that the gauntlet would not blow up.

Thor gave the others a thumbs up and grinned at Loki, who was shaking his head at him in annoyance. Together, the brothers brought their hands up and focused their power and energy towards the gauntlet on the table between them. Tendrils of electricity ran up and down Thor's body as blue and white power rushed out of him and into the gauntlet. While his was a big display of power, Loki's was a quiet one. There were no physical markers of his magic but they all could feel it in the air. The only show of power was the green and gold beam transferring from his hands into the gauntlet. Shuri kept one eye on her computer screen and one on the brothers in front of her and nudged Tony as things started heating up.

"Uh-oh." Both Tony and Bruce said at the same time and looked at each other. Bruce spoke up, "Gauntlet's not gonna last."

"Nor is the shield."

A few moments later, the Avengers were as far away as the lab would allow them to be and the gauntlet started shuddering in its place. Loki sighed and signaled Thor to stop. Once the residual energy had dissipated, the others gathered around Loki, who was examining the gauntlet with a frown.

"What went wrong?" Rocket asked.

"It's not strong enough and we need more energy." Loki muttered and made a few changes to the design that Tony, Rocket, Nebula and Shuri had perfected over the last couple of days.

"More energy?"

"Our combined powers are still no match for the stones put together. They contain the power of the entire universe, all of them, within them." Loki explained as he shoved the sheets of paper at Tony. To Tony, he said, "Get on with it" and walked away.

Tony sighed and examined the papers and inputted the changes to his existing design and everyone walked away, knowing that it would take some time before they could run another test.

It continued in such manner for the next few days, where they would test the modified gauntlet and Loki would declare it unfit and then make a few changes and disappear. Sometimes he would disappear off world and come back with a new, stronger metal or sometimes with a better way to go about the whole thing. They continued to run tests after each modification, sometimes resulting in an explosion within a few seconds of the test starting and sometimes it would hold out for half a minute before exploding. It was their eighth test which was mildly successful.

Bruce sighed as he ran the usual tests on the programs while Shuri and Tony were already in position, with their suits protecting them. Clint and Natasha had opted to stay as far away as possible and still monitor the progress, especially after the last test where Natasha had been thrown into the wall behind her and hurt her shoulder quite badly. Clint himself had only survived the test because he had been crouching next to Scott and Scott had barely managed to hold on to him as the gauntlet had exploded spectacularly. Rocket, covered head to paw in bubble wrap had positioned himself between Nebula and Rhodey and clutched both their arms. Loki, Thor and Wong stood around the gauntlet as the shields went up for the eighth time since they started the whole process. According to Loki, they needed to test it against more power and so Wong had volunteered to use some of the older artifacts at his disposal for the test.

At some unspoken cue, the three threw their power at the gauntlet in front of them in unison. From the get go the armored glove shook with the power being poured into it and for a moment everyone thought that this would be yet another failed test but then it stabilized and Bruce grinned as it remained stable even after forty five seconds. By the one minute mark it started to tremble once again but Loki cut off the power by surrounding the gauntlet with a shield of his making and soon Thor and Wong stopped themselves.

"So?" Shuri asked as soon as the shields were down.

"This will do." Loki said with a nod as he watched the gauntlet absorb the swirling power in the small shield that he had created. "It needs to hold out only until someone can complete the wish and snap. That should not take much time."

"Doesn't it need to hold on from the time the first stone is put in it till the snap is done?" Tony asked.

"Yes, which is why we need to be quick about it." The prince answered as he rubbed his wrists. "You will have less than one minute to complete the whole process. That is about the maximum time limit that the gauntlet can keep itself together for."

"One minute is being optimistic, brother." Thor said gruffly. "We will probably have half a minute at best."

"Half a minute," Tony parroted, "no pressure then."

"Remind me what happens if we are unsuccessful." Scott asked with a long drawn sigh.

"We lose the stones. Forever." With that Loki walked out and left the Avengers staring at each other.

"All signs are still showing that he is somewhere in F-32." Nebula said from where she was crouched over the small computer screen.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Rocket asked.

Tony looked over at the residence building and said, "We'll leave tomorrow." If something went wrong, he wanted to spend one last day with Pepper in peace. The others obviously caught on to the unsaid words and agreed quickly. They too wanted to spend time with the loved ones.

Clint smiled bitter sweetly at the children as they continued pestering Loki to show them more tricks, not like the prince seemed to mind. He was only mellow when he was around the children. At first when Clint had found out that the children were mingling with Loki and following him around everywhere, he was equal parts disturbed and worried, but after an entire day of creeping around the compound, following the children and their new hero, he settled down, just a bit. It still irked him but he allowed it. At this moment, somehow it didn't matter. He was getting to see his children laugh and joke around and he wanted to keep that image in his mind forever, even if the reason for such joy was his once enemy.

He felt rather than saw Laura come up beside him and felt content. If this was going to be the last time he was seeing his family, he wanted to remember them as being happy. Being the understanding person that she was, Laura immediately picked up on his mood and called the children. A heavy weight settled in her chest as she watched Clint pick Nate up and she managed to smile despite her thudding heart.

Steve stared at the framed picture on the wall in front of him, not seeing it as such but not being able to move ahead either. He remembered that day as if it had been yesterday. It had been a pleasant day and one of the few days when the Avengers were not required to save the world. Those days had been far and few as it was. The main reason why the day had been so special was that Thor had been visiting the compound, having been in the area. They all had just lazed around and watched Clint, Wanda and Vision bicker over the proper recipe for some dish that no one had ever heard of. Before Thor had had to leave once again on his self-appointed job of finding the infinity stones, Stark had insisted that they all take a group picture. The only one missing was Bruce, but by then it had been far too long without any proof of life and frankly, they all had been losing hope of ever finding him. Still, the day had been a memorable one.

The soldier felt a lump settle in his throat as he looked at the smiling face of Sam, Wanda's grin and Vision's attempt to keep a straight face. Someone had cracked a stupid joke, probably Tony or Thor. He missed them something fierce. Missed Sam's good natured bickering with everyone, missed Vision's various attempts at being as close to human as possible but somehow always ending up irritating Tony when he didn't use doors to walk in and out of rooms and missed Wanda using her magic to make things disappear right when someone was looking for it and then blaming it on Clint or Sam. He didn't know for how long he stood there but when he became aware of what he was doing, Steve sighed and trekked back to his room. He needed the rest even if he didn't want it. Honestly speaking, he was getting tired of the whole 'hero' routine. Clint had the right idea – to quit all this. Once this fight was over, Steve was retiring. He was sure of that.

Lost in his thoughts of a hopeful future, the super soldier walked into his room and emptied his pockets and removed his watch out of habit. It was only a few minutes later that he realized that there was something different in the room. The colors were the first thing he noted. It had been far too long since he had seen those colors near his person. The combination of blue, red and white made him smile involuntarily. Slowly, he moved towards the round shield that had been with him through all these years. It somehow looked better, freshly painted perhaps. Even then, he could see the scratches that Peggy's bullets had left on it, all those years ago. He had refused it when Fury had suggested that they had the ability to make it better than new. He needed that reminder of his past. Gingerly and reverently, he picked up the shield. It felt like coming home.

"Thought you should have it back."

Steve turned sideways to look at Tony leaning against the wall of his room. Had Tony been there when he had come in? He looked back at the shield in his hand and saw the slight scratches on one side, gained from striking something hard and with a lot of power. He guessed it was from his fight with Tony, the fight that had broken their friendship, hopefully not beyond repair. Then he remembered what Tony had said that day.

"I thought this didn't belong to me?"

Tony pushed himself away from the wall and strolled further into the room, towards the window, away from where Steve was standing at the foot of his bed. "You tried to kill me with that."

"I didn't…"

"If the reactor had still been connected to my heart, I would have died." Tony said somberly, in a resigned manner. He flicked his wrist dismissively as he looked out of the window at the orange-red sky as the sun set. "I didn't want you to have it because dad made it." Then he turned around to face Steve completely and added, "But he made it for you. He wanted you to have it. _I_ want you to have it."

Steve looked down at the familiar weight in his hands and smiled. "Thank you," he said emotionally, trying to fit in all things left unsaid between the two of them in those two words.

Tony nodded and started to walk out of the room. On the way, he patted Steve on the back and said, "Nothing beats the original, yeah?"

"Sometimes it does," Steve said with a smile as he looked at Tony's retreating figure. Tony paused momentarily and walked out with a smile.

It was early morning when Tony found himself staring out of his window. It was far too peaceful outside, nothing indicating what would be happening today. He looked back at his rumpled bed as Pepper changed position. A part of him didn't want to go, didn't want to leave behind the one person he cared about the most in the world, but he knew what needed to be done. Thanos needed to go and Tony was going to be there to make sure that it happened. He heard Pepper get up and walk towards him and he sighed contently when she hugged him from behind. Turning around, he kissed her forehead.

"You come back safely to me. Okay?"

"Of course, Ms. Potts." He stroked the engagement ring on her finger and smiled, "We do have a wedding to plan."

Shuri sighed as she saved the message to her mother and requested Friday to send it along in case she did not make it back. She didn't even want to think about such a scenario but she had to be prepared for it. With a final glance at the room that had been hers for the past few days, she closed the door and headed towards Okoye and Nakia, both of whom had insisted on coming with her. Without a word, the three of them left for the decided upon meeting point. On the way, she met up with Natasha and handed over her latest model of blasters. Over the past few days, as a side project, she and Tony had gotten together and created a variety of weapons for the team, with occasional inputs from Rocket and Nebula.

Natasha smiled as the blasters in the form of wrist cuff clicked softly as she put them on. From the very minute that Shuri had suggested them, she knew she would fall in love with the weapon and she did, utterly and completely. She nodded at Scott and Rhodey, both of who were drinking coffee and chatting with Rocket and Brunnhilde. A solemn Barton joined them, complete with his bow and upgraded arrows and a few other weapons that were most likely provided by Rocket.

Tony checked and rechecked and then rechecked once again because it didn't hurt to be sure. His fingers hovered above the screen, never touching the controls as his eyes skimmed over the text indicating that everything was fine with his suit. He knew he was stalling for time but he couldn't get over the fact that they had fought against this guy once before and failed. It was daunting to think that they were about to go up against him once again. He wasn't scared, but at the same time, he kinda was.

Steve sighed as he looked over at Tony's hunched form. He knew that everyone was waiting for them and he had come to get Tony and Bruce, who were cooped up in the lab. The super soldier went to stand next to Tony and placed his hand on his shoulder in support. He jerked his head towards the exit and silently motioned his friend to come along.

"I'm ready," said Bruce as he stood behind Tony and Steve, a suitcase in his hand. The suitcase was actually the Hulkbuster suit (Bruce still couldn't persuade Tony to change the stupid name). Ever since the scientist had talked to Loki about the problem he was facing with Hulk, he had tried to work on some of the problems. It wasn't really effective and at first he had sought Natasha out, seeing that she was the only one who could calm the Hulk down. It was only later when Nat had said that it wasn't the Hulk she was calming, but Bruce, that he realized he was going about it all wrong.

Then he had gone to Tony. The inventor was the only one in their entire team who had accepted the Hulk long before anyone else was even comfortable thinking about the green giant. They had talked as they worked on making the gauntlet and then he had talked with everyone else too, in varying degrees. The results weren't all that encouraging. On one hand, the Hulk still refused to come out but on the other hand, Bruce actually felt it easier to communicate with the monster and he no longer had to deal with the blinding headaches that Hulk always seemed to bring to the forefront. So, that was progress. He guessed. He didn't know whether he would be able to transform when required and so Tony and Shuri had perfected the Hulkbuster and given it to him. At least he wouldn't be useless on the battlefield.

Half an hour later, everyone found themselves near the Guardian's spaceship. They were planning to use it to reach Sector F-32 and from there it was up to Loki to silently transport them to whichever sorry planet that Thanos was living on. Originally, Loki had insisted that they could trust him to transport them all the way. It would be faster than using a spaceship, but Thor had somehow managed to convince him that he needed to preserve as much of his energy as possible. They would need everything they had and then some to go up against Thanos. Loki had reluctantly agreed in the end.

"Bye, Loki!"

Loki turned around with a smile to look at the horde of children that had surrounded him. Over the past few days, he had found himself in their company quite a lot of time, to the archer's growing horror and objection. It was fun to rile up the former agent. Loki bent down to be at eye level of the kids and grinned at them.

"Come back safely." Jo said, a slight frown on her young face.

"Yeah, you still have to tell us about how you and Thor managed to get lost in the forests on your cousins' planet!" Cooper said hastily as if worried that Loki wouldn't tell them if he didn't remind the god.

"Of course," Loki said smoothly and hoped that he would actually manage to return in one piece. "It is a most scintillating story." He looked fondly as Nate tried to say the word but gave up after a couple of tries. He looked at the children and said, "Now, run along, children. Go be with your parents."

He stood after the children hugged him tightly and ran back to join their families. He looked to his left to see his own family looking at him. "What?"

"You are fond of them." Thor pointed out with a grin.

Loki rolled his eyes and grumbled, "You oaf! They are children. Everyone is fond of children."

Thor just grinned as Loki spoke. It was easy to irritate Loki. All he had to do was point out that Loki had emotions and then watch as his brother would try to deny it completely. Loki stopped talking when he noticed that Thor was gazing fondly at him. The older brother just brought his hand up to grip Loki's neck lightly but firmly, like the million and one times he had done before. Immediately, Loki smiled a bit.

"Brother," Loki said in a low voice, "I need you to promise me something."

"Only if you promise me something in return."

"Which is?"

"Don't do anything stupid."

Loki shook his head slightly and said, "I cannot promise that." Before Thor could protest, he continued, "However, I can promise to be careful."

The king pondered on that for a while before tightening his hold on Loki. "That will do, I suppose. What was it that you wished me to promise?"

"Use your head," Loki jabbed at Thor's temple and then at his heart as he said, "and not your heart." Thor frowned and the younger brother elaborated, "Think like a warrior, not a brother or a friend or a king. If you have the chance to kill Thanos, do it. Don't think if he will know who killed him."

Loki raised his voice, knowing that almost everyone had turned their attention on him and his brother the moment Thor had held him. "That goes for everyone. If you have the chance, kill Thanos. It doesn't matter who kills him or how. As long as he dies, nothing else matters."

Others grumbled incoherently and turned back to their families. Thor looked at Loki and nodded. He smiled when Loki mimicked him and placed his hand on his neck. The two brought their heads together and closed their eyes, both thinking back to the many times they had done this, usually before going into a battle – a premeditated one, not one of those that Thor randomly instigated – or while trying to cheer each other up.

As they separated, Thor said gruffly, "Let's go kill Thanos."


End file.
